A pair of local entrepreneurs are working to bring happy hour back to the Bay State and they have an online petition (happyhourboston.com) with more than 8,000 signatures that they’re hoping to leverage into support from Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s late-night task force and other state ?officials.

Their goal is to enhance Boston’s image as both a cool place to live and to drink.

“People scoff at the idea of spending their 20s and 30s in Boston when they hear there’s no such thing as happy hour,” said Sam Davidson, who ?co-founded with pal Brian Sachetta the mobile app Cheers, which connects friends heading out for drinks. “It detracts from the number of people who want to live here.”

Boston boasts one of the youngest populations of any major city in America, thanks to its preponderance of major universities. But Davidson, a Boston University alum, is quick to point out that the city loses a lot of those students after they graduate.

“Anecdotally, we saw a lot of our peers take off for New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or D.C. after college,” he said. “Boston may be the best place in the world to go to schools, but those cities are seen as better places to be young professionals.”

And a more vibrant night life that kicks off with happy hour after work is one of the reasons why.

Massachusetts became the first state in the union to ban happy hours back in 1984 — around the same time it raised the drinking age from 20 to 21 — as part of an effort to combat alcohol-related accidents.

Few other states followed suit. Happy hour is currently legal in 42 states.

Today’s Bay State regulations ban establishments from offering discounted drinks at various points on a given day. Any special price on a drink must be offered all week long.

However, Massachusetts casinos have an ?exemption that allows them to serve discounted or even free drinks, which Davidson called “hypocritical.” The casino exemption is one of 11 reasons the time is now to bring happy hour back to Boston, according to his happyhourboston.com ?petition.

The mayor’s late-night task force recently proposed several recommendations to jazz up the city’s nightlife. But happy hour is not among them.

And even if happy hour were on the list, there’s little the mayor’s office can do about it.

Walsh spokeswoman Bonnie McGilpin told the Herald it’s a statewide ?issue, not one in the hands of the city. And as of ?today, there is no statewide plan to bring back happy hour, according to the ?Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.