Several Georgia colleges are distancing themselves from a nationwide debate about lowering the legal drinking age.

On Wednesday, the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Emory University, Georgia State University, Morehouse College and Agnes Scott College confirmed they were not taking part in the Amethyst Initiative.

Amethyst asks college presidents to consider urging their lawmakers to discuss lowering the drinking age.

“While we welcome and encourage spirited public debate about appropriate standards of behavior, we do not support policies that would have the effect of encouraging or making it more likely that younger citizens would use alcohol or drugs,” Morehouse President Robert M. Franklin said.

College presidents from about 100 well-known U.S. universities — including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State — support Amethyst Initiative’s effort, the organization said.

The group plans to call on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

Essentially, the argument is that young people drink to excess because it’s taboo. Legalizing it, some say, will reduce the number of young adults who overdrink.

“It’s a flawed argument,” said Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Washington-based Governors Highway Safety Association. Changing the law, he said, “will create problems for a whole other set of kids – high schoolers.”

The presidents of two Georgia colleges – Oglethorpe University and Spelman College – had signed Amethyst Initiative’s online petition as of Wednesday afternoon. It is non-binding and largely ceremonial.

Emory, Georgia Tech , UGA, GSU and Agnes Scott do not have plans to sign it, their respective spokespeople said Wednesday.

“On the issue of changing the drinking age, this is not a parade I want to lead,” UGA President Michael Adams said.

Morehouse initially supported the idea, but later decided against it, according to the school’s written statement.

Kennesaw State University is taking it “under advisement” and has not made a decision, school spokeswoman Arlethia Perry-Johnson said.

In the 1970s, the federal government allowed states to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to as young as 18. Those that did so, however, saw a spike in traffic-related deaths among teens who had been drinking.

In 1984, president Ronald Reagan signed into law the Uniform Drinking Age Act mandating all states to adopt 21 as the legal drinking age.

“There’s clearly a problem with binge drinking on college campuses,” said Adkins. “But you don’t fix that by giving up and going back to [age] 18.”

Spelman College President Beverly Daniel Tatum said she supports any program that gets people talking.

“Binge drinking is not a problem at Spelman College. However, it has become a major problem on many campuses in higher education,” she said. “I stand in solidarity with my presidential colleagues who seek to open the debate on how the problem can be addressed more effectively.”

Repeated calls and e-mails to Oglethorpe were not returned Wednesday.

The movement began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate.

“This is a law that is routinely evaded,” said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. “It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory.”

While it’s assumed most college students would favor lowering the drinking age to 18, there was considerable opposition among undergraduates at Morehouse and Spelman.

“You’re not mature enough at 18 to be drinking,” said Gregory Brown, a senior at Morehouse.

Spelman junior Alicia Scott said she understands the argument for lowering the drinking age but, like Brown, wonders if college freshman are ready to handle the responsibility.

“People are going to do what they want to do, but is it a good idea to encourage it?” Scott said. “I can see both points of views.”

Staff writer Christian Boone and the Associated Press contributed to this report.