Social Policy

Prohibition's New Clothes

Anti-drunk-driving groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have expanded their agenda, critics say. "They're not saying 'don't drink and drive,' they're saying 'don't drink,'" charges Gail Morrison of the National Motorists Association.

A campaign supported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) seeks to lower the threshold for legal intoxication nationwide to a .08 blood alcohol level -- the point at which a person is deemed legally drunk -- from 0.1 percent. States which refused to follow the new standard would lose federal highway funds.

Critics say that even careful and casual drinkers -- such as a couple who shared a half- liter of wine over dinner -- could find themselves charged with being drunk or under the influence of alcohol, regardless of whether their judgment were impaired.

  • Experts say that a person of average weight who consumes just two drinks containing one ounce of alcohol each within about an hour -- whether beer, wine or spirits -- would come dangerously close to the .08 level.

  • Fifteen states have already adopted the .08 standard.

  • Critics say that with fewer drunks on the road and thus fewer drivers exhibiting erratic behavior, police have stepped up their use of alcohol checkpoints -- in order to maintain arrest rates.

  • Since there is no objective proof that a person with a blood alcohol level of .08 or .06 is "drunk" or even "impaired," the NHTSA bases its argument for lowering the standards on a study of arrest rates in states with lowered blood alcohol standards.

Critics contend there is no correlation, only an attempt by anti-alcohol groups to manipulate the definition of drunkenness.

Source: Eric Peters, "A Nation of Dangerous Drunks?" Washington Times, January 27, 1998.

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