Gov. Janet Napolitano said her reaction is one of "deep skepticism."

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PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano is giving a chilly reception to a proposal to let those younger than 21 drink, personal experience not withstanding.

Napolitano said Wednesday she has not studied the proposal by several dozen college presidents to scrap state laws that raised the drinking age more than two decades ago to 21. Their argument, dubbed the Amethyst Initiative, is that students are less likely to engage in binge drinking and risky behavior if they are in such public places as bars rather than in dorm rooms or off campus.

Napolitano said that doesn't make a lot of sense to her.

"I gotta say I'm skeptical because we know the science of brain development, even at that age," she said.

"And we have a real problem with young drivers drinking and driving and making a real push in our state about that."

The governor credited a crackdown on drinking and driving for at least part of the reduction in fatal accidents in Arizona.

"If they want to send me some information, I'll review it," she continued. "But my initial reaction is one of deep skepticism."

Napolitano also said waiting until 21 is not a hardship. She pointed out she went to college at Santa Clara University in California, a state that has set the drinking age at 21 since the end of Prohibition.

"I didn't drink before the legal age," she said.

Never?

"You know what? I'm sure I did," the governor responded. "But that's a lot different from changing the legal standard for everyone."

And she said lowering the legal drinking age "probably then pushes down the age to 16 or 15 when kids start drinking. There is an effect there that happens."

Arizona's legal drinking age was 21 until lawmakers lowered it in 1972 to 19, where it remained until 1984 when then-Gov. Bruce Babbitt signed a law restoring the previous standard.

Much of the impetus for that change was threats by the federal government to cut off aid to any state that allowed drinking by anyone younger than 21.