New England has become a battleground for the debate over underage drinking, as Vermont legislators are considering the possible risks of lowering the drinking age while Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Massachusetts is pushing to make public intoxication at any age illegal.

The evolving debate over whether leniency or harsher penalties is needed to combat underage drinking has drawn attention to the growing gap between younger anti-prohibitionists and their parents.

Vermont Sen. Hinda Miller, a Democrat, sponsored a bill to form a task force that will assess the risk of lowering the drinking age and weigh the pros and cons of current drinking laws.

“I thought it was time to look at a law that was put into effect 20 years ago and see if it is still appropriate,” she said.

Miller said though the Vermont legislature raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 in 1985, conditions have changed due to the increase in drunk driving checkpoints and binge drinking.

The original law was aimed at reducing traffic fatalities and MADD said alcohol-related fatalities have decreased by 40 percent since it has been in effect. What MADD does not mention, however, is that this research spans all age groups, not just those who are underage, Miller said.

MADD Massachusetts’s solution to underage drinking is not to conduct more research, but to punish underage intoxication with fines equivalent to speeding tickets, said MADD Massachusetts spokesman David Deiuliis.

“What we’re looking to do is make it a civil offense . . . so that parents have a better idea of what their kids are up to, alcohol abuse problems could be detected earlier and direct that young person to treatment,” he said.

Deiuliis said MADD is not concerned about Vermont’s proposed bill and expects it to die in committee.

“If the legislature in Vermont feels like wasting taxpayers’ money in creating a task force, it will take care of itself,” he said. “If they ultimately do form a task force they will just figure out it’s a bad idea.”

Deiuliis said the idea that a higher drinking age causes binge drinking is untrue and lowering the age will not eradicate binge drinking.

John McCardell, president of Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit grassroots organization that looks to stimulate discussion about youth alcohol use, said alcohol-related fatalities spiked in 2006 despite the 21-plus drinking age.

Both Deiuliis and McCardell said the current law has not been successful and has actually generated negative effects like increased binge drinking.

“Binge drinking has become much more serious across college campuses,” McCardell said. “The law has not reduced drinking — it has forced it out of the public eye into dark corners and underground.”

He said those proposing the Vermont bill should have all the research on underage drinking they can, but opposition in the state’s legislature may be due to lawmakers’ fear of what studies may reveal.

“We should not have reason to fear a study of something,” he said. “People who vote against it must be rather close minded because they think that nothing can be found out.”

Many states first raised their drinking ages because Congress threatened to withdraw highway funding if the states did not comply, McCardell said.

Boston University College of Arts and Science freshman Patrick Vena said the allure of breaking the law leads to underage binge drinking and said people are less motivated to binge drink when they are 21 or older.

Vena said he has traveled in Europe and said the youth binge drinking trend seems to be isolated to the United States.

“They don’t have a drinking problem,” he said. “They don’t get trashed and drunk like we do — they think we’re crazy.”