A Covert War Against Drinking - American Beverage Institute

support and enhances court programeffectiveness.DUI courts represent a legal means of interventionto provide treatment for alcoholismand alcohol abuse. In other words, DUI courtsrecognize that the act of drunk driving is acrime, but the consumption of alcohol is not.And the system is set up to help the individualwith his or her particular alcohol problem.So, unlike more broad and sweeping measures(e.g., .08 BAC and roadblocks), DUIcourts are focused, and directly address thedrunk driving problem without infringingupon those who act responsibly and don’tendanger innocent people.ConclusionNo one denies that some drinkers of adultlibations habitually overconsume, with tragicconsequences for themselves, theirfamilies, and innocents unfortunate enoughto cross their weaving path on the highway.Drinking alcohol is not, as the NewProhibitionists assert, all bad. It is hard toname a freedom that carries no risk, or aproduct that human irresponsibility has notat some point turned into a weapon.Perspective is what balances the equation.MADD and its allies oppose any “drinkingand driving.” That certainly is theirright. Yet the traditional role of alcohol as asocial lubricant and host to conviviality cannotbe denied. “The sun looks down onnothing half so good,” wrote C.S. Lewis,“as a household laughing together over ameal, or two friends talking over a pint ofbeer.” ci Today, tens of millions of Americansvalue those same experiences. They findcamaraderie, cement friendship, and reaffirmlove in restaurants where alcohol helpsconfirm these vital human ceremonies.Many must use a car to get there, and toreturn home. How great is the risk?For the vast majority of these citizens—theresponsible majority, who know when tostop—the risk is small. To eliminate it totallyremoves these people’s right to publiclycelebrate the most fundamental human connections.The risk that such celebrations createis no more inordinate than that created whenwe allow drivers to go 65 mph on an interstate,knowing full well that a 25 mph capwould be safer. In a free society, the questionis one of balancing competing goods.The Prohibitionist—the Absolutist—impulse is always with us. Once itsspokesmen alleged that drinkers mightexplode if they stood too close to an openflame. Today they charge that drinkers, howeverprudent and careful in consumption,are wreaking slaughter on other motoristsand pedestrians. Folly then, folly now.What’s needed is a new alliance of reason—aleague of hard-headed realists thatwould preserve revered social rituals bytempering the New Temperance, yet championsafety by relentlessly targeting thereckless few.To fight with each other while this menacebarrels past, claiming new victims, is toexacerbate the problem. It is not to behavewith sobriety.American Beverage Licensees | America's Beer, Wine, and Spirits Retailers15