We can debate the legal drinking age all we want, but there are no compelling reasons to change it.

The presidents of about 100 top colleges in the United States have called for a national debate on lowering the age limit from 21 to 18. They think that the current prohibition leads to binge drinking on their campuses.

It is true that other countries get along without a legal drinking age or alcohol-buying age at all. You can send your 12-year-old kid to the corner pub to bring back a pitcher of beer. But most of those places also don’t have teenagers driving cars.

And many — such as Russia — used to have well-publicized problems with excessive drinking, disproving the idea that if you let kids start drinking early, they will develop responsible habits. Some will and some won’t.

In this country, states could do away with the drinking age or lower it if they could count on young people to act responsibly. But all it would take to cause a backlash are two or three well-publicized instances in which an 18-year-old has legally stocked up on vodka and then kills himself and his friends in a crash.

A hundred years ago, a drunk could cause little harm even if he fell off his horse. But now, alcohol is a serious safety issue because modern life presents so many ways in which being inebriated can cause others harm.

If underclassmen in college drink too much and cause problems, maybe the colleges ought to be more selective and admit only those who are more mature. (hh)