It's 'Nanny State' to keep unsafe drivers off the road? Then so be it - I guess I'm in favor of a nanny state.
This guy has a condition that can make him pass out. This condition is exacerbated by his drinking.
He should not be driving.
Not only is alcohol a legal substance to consume, but in Pennsylvania the only place you can buy wine and liquor by the bottle (with a few exceptions) is ... STATE STORES. So the product is legal enough for the state to sell it - but if someone consumes the legal product, the state can, without any evidence of wrongdoing, take away the person's license.
And as noted on the other thread, this could have a VERY chilling effect on people's willingness to mention their alcohol consumption to their doctors. I'm this guy's age, and I'll drink a six pack - and at my body weight, I'm not even legally intoxicated if I were drink a six-pack in an hour. I will now think twice about mentioning to a doctor that I consume beer if I go to him for any health problem.
I re-read this article and I didn't see anything about him passing out or having a history of it, though doubtless that could happen with the condition that he is experiencing. I believe the article says this irregular heartbeat affects 2 million Americans. You aren't saying all of them should lose their licenses? I agree with you that medically unsafe drivers need to be off the road, but there has got to be a line. To me, this is getting close to saying, hey, you're obese, you have high blood pressure, you could have a heart attack while driving, so no license for you. And it sounds like the reason the license was pulled was not the condition itself but the fact that he exacerbates it by drinking, though still, apparently, without incident. I think the article also mentions caffeine as an aggravating factor... what if he had told his doctor he drinks coffee? Do you think the result would, or should, have been the same? Also, judging from at least one of his comments about drinking after work, it doesn't sound like he drinks till the end of the day, when theoretically he is home and not driving.... though clearly I'm extrapolating here. But bottom line is that the connection in this case just seems to me to be way too tenuous to pull his license.