Lots of people, it turns out.

As you've surely heard, more than 125 college presidents and chancellors have signed a petition urging the reconsideration of our nation's alcohol laws, which are clearly broken when it comes to underage students.

Their effort is called the Amethyst Initiative, which sounds like a secret club, or maybe the sequel to "The Da Vinci Code," but actually refers to the ancient belief that amethyst warded off intoxication and promoted moderation.

C.D. Mote Jr., president of the University of Maryland, College Park, signed it, as did William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

"Twenty-one is not working," their statement read, citing a culture of binge-drinking and fake IDs and a failure to slow underage drinking. The statement calls on elected officials to "invite new ideas about the best ways to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol."

Christopher Nelson, president of St. John's College in Annapolis, said he agrees with some of the thinking but didn't sign because he worries lowering the drinking age could have negative effects beyond campuses.

But to Caroline Cash, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving's Chesapeake region, there's no reason for a debate.

"It's 21 because 21 saves lives," she said, succinct as a bumper sticker.

Nowhere in the Amethyst Initiative statement does it say the drinking age should be lowered to 18, though that's naturally been the assumption in the news coverage.

"That can be a little concerning when the folks who are supposed to be enforcing the law and protecting the health and safety of these students are sort of waving the white flag," Ms. Cash said. "Why is it that only the college and university presidents seem to want to say 'This isn't working?' "

Maybe because they're on the front lines of the war on underage drinking and have seen firsthand that what we're doing doesn't work.

The Amethyst Initiative statement asks: "How many times must we relearn the lessons of Prohibition?"

But as with so many issues, we can't have a reasoned debate because people's minds have been made up. Lowering the drinking age is a nonstarter politically; no legislator wants to look soft on drunken driving, which MADD has succeeded in linking to underage drinking in the public dialogue.

Similarly, politicians are scared to support drug legalization because they'd look soft on crime, though anyone who opens his eyes can see the vaunted "War on Drugs" - like Prohibition - has failed spectacularly.

AAA Mid-Atlantic cites federal statistics estimating that raising the drinking age to 21 has saved about 900 lives a year, or close to 25,000 lives since 1984, when the feds forced every state to go to 21 to keep highway funding.

But if raising the drinking age to 21 has saved so many lives, I wondered, why not raise it to 25? Or 30? Surely that would save more lives.

The first interest-group spokesman I posed that question to was so flabbergasted, she had to hang up and call me back once she'd thought of a suitable answer. Turns out the answer was: Don't quote us.

Ms. Cash cited cutting-edge science showing that brains aren't fully developed until the early 20s and alcohol use before that can impair function. Hmm. So if their brains aren't fully developed, why are 18-year-olds allowed to vote?

"There's been questions about that," Ms. Cash said. "Why do you have to be 35 to run for president? I don't have the answer to those questions."

Keep that in mind, youth of America. The same people who don't trust you to order a beer might not trust you to cast a ballot. But you can still fight and die in the wars started by politicians old enough to run for office.

Ms. Cash contested the premise of my questions, which was that the drinking age has little effect because any college kid who wants booze can get it.

"There are actually law-abiding citizens," she said. "There are kids who hear and understand the message."

That's news to me. When I was in college and underage, there were kids who didn't drink. But that was because they just weren't interested, not because they respected the law or because the law made it difficult to get booze.

Indeed, the most drinking I saw in college occurred on nominally "alcohol-free" floors where underage students had specifically pledged to abstain.

Ms. Cash said MADD understands underage drinking is a major problem and is working on ways to solve it. But she said: "We certainly don't want to add fuel to the fire by lowering the drinking age."

And so a broken system continues because we're too scared of what might happen if we change it - or even just talk about it.