Last week's Question of the Week asked whether readers think the legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18. Two out of three thought not.

Among 499 responses to this unscientific poll, 330 were against the idea while 169 favored it.

We received a number of thoughtful comments on this issue. Here is a representative sample:

n Been there, done that, did not work then and given the level of maturity of most 18-year-olds I see it certainly will not work now.

n I have no problem lowering the age or even eliminating it as long as parents take a role in alcohol introduction. My wife, one of the most responsible people I know, was raised in a German family. She, her sister and her father would each have one-third of a beer on most nights. Alcohol was introduced to her as a food when she was about eight years old. She never abused it and to this day (she's going on 70) continues to enjoy this beverage.

n It should be kept at 21. We are already sending children to war. Why compound our error by lowering the drinking age? Better to raise the age they can go into the service to 21.

n If an 18-year-old is mature enough to get shipped overseas to fight and possibly get mangled for life in a war having no moral justification, then he (and more likely now, she) should be entitled to come home and raise a toast to the morally bankrupt incompetents who sent them there.

n As a parent, my number one priority is my children's safety. The research I have read seems to say that I can keep my kids safer when the legal drinking age remains 21. We know most young people binge drink, which leads to many other issues including traffic crashes, dating violence, pregnancy and other drug use.

n I think the drinking age should be lowered to 19. Three years is too long to go without the right to socialize and meet people at local "watering holes." It is unrealistic to think that people can fight, work and marry but not deserve the right to have a drink in moderation.

n I am a mother who "survived teenagers during the 1970s." The lower drinking age resulted in younger and younger children having ready access to alcohol. How many 18-year-olds are still in high school? The adolescent brain does not become fully developed until the 20s. There is good reason to leave the drinking age at 21 years.

n If you are old enough to fight for your country you should have a choice to drink a beer. I'm 19 and have best friends in the military who are more mature than a lot of 30-years-olds I've met. Besides, all my friends and I are going to do it anyway whether anyone likes it or not and you won't stop me, so all in all the drinking age doesn't really matter to me. I just think it's not right when you are old enough to go to war and not old enough to drink a beer, but if you are caught driving I think your privilege should be taken away. Just put yourself in our shoes.

n No. I am a bartender. Eighteen is too young. Twenty-one is too young. How about raising the drinking age to 30!