BLOOMINGTON - John McCardell says the national network of 21-to-drink laws is "to put it one way, age discrimination."

"It is, to put it another way, an abridgement of the age of majority and it is an inconsistency that the current generation of 18-to-20-year olds finds difficult to comprehend," said the former president of Middlebury College in Vermont and current director of Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit group aimed at lowering the legal drinking age.

It has been 27 years since 19-year-olds were allowed to drink in Illinois bars, and 23 years since a federal law forced states to choose between restricting alcohol sales and losing federal highway money. Yet the debate over the drinking age hasn't ended.

The Iraq war, which is being fought by many men and women under the age of 21, is partly behind the current debate: The argument goes if they are old enough to fight, they are old enough to drink.

Misty Moyse, spokeswoman for the national office of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said that is comparing apples and oranges.

"We're talking about roadway safety, we're talking about teen safety," Moyse said. "So we want to make the roads as safe as they can possibly be. And the 21 law helps, along with enforcement, make the roads safer for everybody."

MADD estimates laws restricting alcohol sales to people over 21 have saved about 23,000 lives since 1984.

The organization is not alone in opposing any movement to lower the drinking age; other groups, law enforcement and government in general say it would lead to increased drunken driving and other crimes - and a return of the blood borders between states without matching restrictions.

McLean County State's Attorney Bill Yoder agrees a lower drinking age would likely lead to increased drunken driving, domestic disputes and "stupid" crimes.

"We all know that young people feel indestructible, and we all know that alcohol reduces your inhibitions," Yoder said. "And so, when you combine those two factors, it's not a good mix."

Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, is in the same camp. A former coroner, he said two common factors of teen-related traffic crashes are speed and alcohol. When it comes to maturity to drink responsibly and a body's ability to absorb alcohol, 21 is "appropriate to combat some of the problems of over-consumption."

"I'm comfortable and believe that is the appropriate place - to have the legal drinking age 21," Brady said.

But Alex Koroknay-Palicz, executive director of the National Youth Rights Association, called the debate a civil rights issue.

"I think things are progressing very well," Koroknay-Palicz said. "Something as ambitious as changing laws in 50 states and the federal government takes time."

In 2005, Wisconsin legislators introduced a bill to allow active military members to drink in that state. That same year, in Vermonth, a measure was proposed to allow all 18-year-olds to drink. Both bills went nowhere.

"The theory was if you're old enough to go to Iraq, you're old enough to go to a bar in Wisconsin to have a beer," said Jim Bender, spokesman for Wisconsin Rep. Jim Fitzgerald, who was among those supporting the bill.

Wisconsin allowed 18-year-olds to drink until 1984 and 19-year-olds to drink until 1986, the same year Vermont changed from 18 to 21.

A campaign is underway now in Missouri, which has had a 21-year-old law since 1945. There is no current effort to lower Illinois' drinking age.

Michael Mikkelsen, 25, is behind "Missouri 18 to Drink." He said his network of supporters includes about 100 people who have signed up on his Web site, about 2,700 Facebook group members and the few hundred people who have signed his petitions.

Depending which congressional districts Mikkelsen targets, he will need between 139,000 and 152,000 signatures by May for his petition to make it onto the general election ballot.

State Rep. Jil Tracy, whose district is a short drive from Missouri, isn't aware of the ballot initiative across the border, but would be concerned if people considered underage in Illinois were crossing the state line to drink.

Yoder said in the years between Illinois and Wisconsin changing their drinking-age laws, many youths ended up in morgues when crossing back into Illinois, adding that while many other countries have lower age limits, they tend to have more severe DUI punishments.

"For whatever reason, the people in this nation don't feel that the 15,000 to 20,000 people that die every year as a result of drinking and driving is significant," Yoder said. "And until this nation accepts the fact that that is a significant factor, I don't see expanding the drinking age to be a wise choice."

Koroknay-Palicz said increased seat belt use, lower blood-alcohol limits, increased education about drunken driving and a change in attitudes toward drunken driving - not age restrictions - have led to decreases in highway deaths since 1984. He credited MADD with doing a "tremendous job" changing the social acceptability of drunken driving, but said MADD's members are off base in pushing to keep the drinking age at 21.

"There are states that were 21 and remained at 21, and there were states that were 18 and raised it to 21, and both sets of states experienced the same sets of drops in the last 20 years," Koroknay-Palicz said.

Moyse disputed that, saying studies show highway deaths increased when states lowered the drinking age and decreased when they were raised to 21.

McCardell said the only way to judge the effectiveness of under-21 laws is to ask if people under 21 are drinking, which they are. That makes the law "an abysmal failure," he said.

But Moyse said the law isn't the problem.

"I think the 21 law could work better in certain circumstances, but enforcement is key," said Moyse, adding parents need to ask themselves if they want to allow more access to alcohol.

McCardell said it doesn't make sense that alcohol education is only mandatory after DUI arrests, not before. And he said research shows more than 1,000 adults between 18 and 24 die each year because of alcohol in places other than roadways.

"All it has done is send drinking out of the public eye, out of bars, out of restaurants - in many states, out of the privacy of one's home - and behind closed doors, in dark corners underground into the riskiest possible of environments and into places where binge drinking is much more likely to take place," McCardell said. "Binge drinking, I believe, is a direct consequence of legal age 21."

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On the 'Net

Here are some Web links to organizations on both sides of the issue of whether the legal drinking age should remain at 21 or be lowered to 18.

www.chooseresponsibility.org

www.why21.org (a MADD site)

www.youthrights.org

www.missouri18todrink.org