I can't quote stats, as I'm not sure where exactly to look for these particlular stats. It'd probably require that I go to the library and look up newspaper artciles, scan them and post them somewhere. And I don't have the time.
Back when Indiana's drinking age was 18, and Ohio's was 21, a strech of road between NW Ohio and NE Indiana got quite a reputation. Highway 37. Come friday night, the 18 yr olds in Ohio would head down highway 37 to go to Indiana and get good and drunk. When the bars closed, they'd come back in their cars, on Highway 37. It became known as the "corridor of death." Every weekend there was a serious, alcohol related accident on this road. Some weekends, kids died, some weekends the people they hit died. These were highschool kids sometimes, who had just turned 18 in early fall or spring.
The fact is, if colorado has a drinking age of 18, its going to attract kids from other states to go drink (much like Canada attracts 19yr olds now, and Tijuana attracts 18yr olds). You may not think about it too much, especially if you're smack in the middle of the state. You'll see it around the borders mostly, bars will pop up to serve the weekend crowd of teens coming over the border. Oh, kids will die. No amount of DWI punishment will stop that. Around here, when teens drink, they drive more then adults. They're kids. They don't think their actions through, they don't think about the families they're putting in danger when they get behind the wheel. As much as it's drilled into them, they don't believe they'll have to live with it forever.
Besides, what good can come from an 18yr old drinking age? Don't give me the "I can die for my country, I should be able to get hammered at will" excuse, that's the main argument used to get the voting age lowered, and from the numbers I've seen, 18-21 year olds aren't showing up in droves to "preserve the right to elect who is going to send them to war."
The federal government withholds funds for highway development from states with lower then 21 drinking age (as someone already mentioned). That can be a substantial amount of money that colorado is going to have to come up with. They're going to have to make quite a bit off of teens drinking to make up that difference.
Edit:
As far as the "Can drink w/ parents rule" its pretty strict. They have to be with you at all times, until the bottle leaves the table. They must order it for you, and they must hand it to you.
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