I have to respond to anyone who wants to see this state take a gigantic step backward and lower the legal drinking age to 18. The problem is the illegal drinking wouldn’t stop there. The facts show that lowering the legal drinking age would have the undeniable effect of making alcohol more accessible to youth. If Georgia lowers the drinking age, more of our young people will drink and drive and more of our young people will die.

The move to lower the drinking age to 18 ignores the fact that many Georgia teens turn 18 while still in high school. This misinformed idea simply pushes responsibility for handling the underage drinking problem down to high school teachers and principals, and parents of students still at home.

A lot has changed since the 1970s, when some states temporarily experimented with 18-year-old drinking laws because our country was at war. Then, as now, it was a popular concept, but it turned out to be a deadly public health and public safety policy change. Decades of research have consistently shown that the enactment of the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) laws have saved an estimated 25,000 lives.

Specifically, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports show these laws have reduced traffic fatalities involving drivers age 18 to 20 by 13 percent, saving 900 lives every year. Approximately 36 of those young lives saved each year would be from Georgia. So changing the drinking age now would be like losing a whole classroom of our college students for an entire graduating class in Georgia each year.

Finally, it’s nothing less than a popular urban pub myth that there is less of a youth drunkenness problem in Europe, where, as some have claimed, “beer is available in vending machines.” In most European countries, young people have higher rates of intoxication than American youth. Data show European countries are now experiencing an alarming increase in binge drinking compared to their American peers, even though their drinking ages are lower.

There’s no question that lowering the legal drinking age in Georgia will result in more teens killing themselves —- and others —- by driving impaired.

> Bob Dallas is director of the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.