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Originally posted by MBM:
The logic seems to be - since they are addicted to alcohol - let's not make it any harder for them to access it. That makes sense how???
A couple of things:
1 - That's a big assumption that these people are all alcoholics. I'm not an alcoholic and I've certainyl driven at least twice under the influence. I very well could've had 2 or 3 DUIs.
2 - Are you running a one-man AA program or addressing drunk driving? Once again, the problem is the driving, not the drinking. Even if they are alcoholics, it is not YOUR place (and
certainly not the government's place) to get into people's lives and decide you are going to make them quit.
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Again - it seems a rather clear choice for the multiple DUI offender: you can either drink or you can drive, but you can't do both.
As I said, this is bunk. They get their licenses taken away. There is no choice for them to make.
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If someone has committed multiple DUI's then it is clear that they have a problem. Frenchy - that person doesn't have "bad luck".
You say this as if I am painting drunk drivers as total innocents. Not at all. Drinking and driving is a problem. A WIDE-SPREAD PROBLEM THAT TOUCHES MUCH MORE THAN JUST THOSE WHO GET CAUGHT.
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They are a menace and society needs to be protected from them. How many years have we heard commercials about NOT drinking and driving. Who among us doesn't know that you aren't supposed to drive impaired? OK - it happens once. No one has been addressing that person here.
In one breath you say "Who doesn't know that drinking and driving is bad" and then in the next you say "Well, once is excusable and I'm not talking about them." THIS is what I mean. THIS is the prevailing attitude and why there are so many people who drive drunk. And I've yet to meet the drinker who has only driven drunk ONCE. Everybody thinks that as long as they don't do it too often, or as long as they can still sort of see straight, or as long as they had a really good reason or blahblahblah then it's understandable. Hypocrits!
Texas Star, I touched on it before, but now that I'm saying it again, let me point out that the above is my solution. Realistically and honestly looking at the situation of drunk driving and seeing it as being something that in inexcusable under any circumstances and stop indulging these hypocritical excuses. That is the only way to change the stats. People must see the value in the message and act accordingly.
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BTW - your logic about compulsions isn't persuasive. You could say that we can't outlaw murder since people will just go ahead and kill anyway.
Except, my love, I'm not advocating for drunk driving to be made legal. I'm saying the proposed solution is irrelevant and will not work. That's all I've been saying.
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You can't criminalize discrimination - since people have a right to their beliefs. And on and on and on . . .

Society makes decisions every day about what is "legal" and what is not. If society can say that some people can't drive - why can't we say that some people who have abused alcohol chronically in the past can no longer drink?
Because it's not against the law to drink or be drunk. Society can say whatever the hell it wants to say, but the police need to be enforcing the law. And what the law speaks to is my driving.