But consider that, according to studies published last year, the percentage of college students in Utah who binge drink was at 5.2 percent, as compared with 67.9 percent nationally. That's a Grand Canyon gulf. Clearly, factors other than the legal age limit affect how young people behave. Religion obviously plays a large role, but so do education and culture.

Which brings us back to tobacco. No one is suggesting that the way to end underage smoking is to make it legal. Rather, several studies suggest a link between tax increases on cigarettes and a reduction in young smokers. In addition, smoking has become socially unacceptable in many contexts, due to a variety of factors, including restrictions on advertising.

The answer to binge drinking, then, is not to make alcohol legally available to people who have yet to develop the judgment skills to act responsibly. It is not to give official sanction to something that can permanently damage developing minds. It is to attack the industry itself, its advertising and its reach. A petition by college leaders earlier this month to get the NCAA to ban beer commercials from college sports was a much better approach.

The college presidents do make one valid point. They believe Congress has strangled debate on the drinking age by tying a 21-year age limit to highway funds. Any state that lowers its limit stands to lose 10 percent of its money.

By all means, open up the debate. Any clear-eyed examination of alcohol and its effects will show how absurd it would be for government to approve something that would permanently harm young minds.

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Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com