A Covert War Against Drinking - American Beverage Institute

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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
Endnotes1 “Some People Question Further Need forOrganization,” The Columbus Dispatch, 12January 2003.2 U.S. Department of Transportation, NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administration, TrafficSafety Facts 2000, DOT HS 809 337, April 2002,32; and National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration, Traffic Safety Facts 2001, DOTHS 809 470, December 2002, 1.3 “Really MADD: Looking Back at 20 Years,”DRIVEN, Spring 2000.4 “MADD’s Mission is to Save Lives,” ChicagoTribune, 18 February 1997.5 “Drunken Driving Laws ’98: States Face Debateon Legal Limit,” USA Today, 2 January 1998.6 Karolyn Nunnallee, Today Show, 12 October 1996.7 MADD Fundraising Letter, December 2002.8 “No Drunks Need to Drive,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 12 September 2002.9 Unpublished analysis of U.S. Department ofTransportation Fatality Analysis ReportingSystem data on BAC levels and fatalities inaccidents where a driver was actually tested.10 According to NHTSA’s BAC Estimator (developedin October 1994), a 160-pound man withan average metabolism who drank 9.5 drinksin a four-hour time period without food wouldreach 0.16% BAC (A drink is defined by theprogram as containing 0.54 ounces of alcohol.).11 Analysis of U.S. Department of TransportationFatality Analysis Reporting System data.Calculation includes traffic fatalities in which adriver involved was actually tested at 0.01%BAC or above. All deaths were categorizedaccording to the highest BAC of a driver byindividual crash.12 Boston University School of Public Health biographyof Ralph Hingson, http://www.bumc.bu.edu/sph/FacultyStaff/FacultyDetail.asp?PeopleID=625; accessed 1 March 2003.13 Robert Scopatz, “Analysis of 1975-1993 FatalCrash Experience in states with 0.08% LegalBlood Alcohol Levels,” American BeverageInstitute, Executive Summary, May 1997.14 Ibid., 12.15 Robert Voas et al., Effectiveness of the Illinois .08Law, Pacific Institute for Research andEvaluation for National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration, September 2000.16 “Researcher Examines ‘Real World’ Effects ofAlcohol Prevention,” Food & Drink Daily 5, no.85 (5 May 1995).17 James Fell and Delmas Johnson, “The Impact ofLowering the Illegal BAC Limit to .08 in FiveStates in the U.S.,” 39 th Annual Proceedings ofthe Association for the Advancement ofAutomotive Medicine, Chicago, IL (1995), 45-63.18 “Highway Safety: Effectiveness of State .08Blood Alcohol Laws”, General AccountingOffice Report to Congressional Committees,GAO/RCED-99-179, June 1999, 21.19 Ibid., 14.20 Hearing of the Transportation andInfrastructure Subcommittee of the SenateEnvironment and Public Works Committee onthe Surface Transportation Act Renewal,Testimony of Mr. Phillip R. Recht DeputyAdministrator for the National HighwayTraffic and Safety Administration, 7 May 1997.21 GAO Report, Highway Safety, 16.22 Ibid.23 Ibid.16American Beverage Licensees | America's Beer, Wine, and Spirits Retailers
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