I've seen people make the arguments to lower the drinking age to 16 to give parents the control needed to introduce their kids to alcohol, learn how to use it and make drinking "not that big of a deal." I'm very much on the fence here. On one hand, having your kid get drunk for the first time at home is a whole hell of a lot better than getting drunk god-knows-where with whom-the-hell-knows at some party somewhere. On the other hand, 16 year olds are already distracted enough while driving that I can see a potential uptick in drunk driving. Europe allows 16 year olds to drink, but they have a population density that facilitates widely used public transit and these kids are not behind the wheel.
The other argument is that binge drinking is due to people having no or minimal alcohol exposure before leaving home. The forbidden is always enticing; this is one of the reasons that legalizing weed has not resulted in a big uptick in use. Make alcohol "not cool" and "not rebellious" and the binge drinking culture may decrease.