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Sounds like you've helped out in an alcoholics group, I have never done that, but congrats that you have. I haven't read the thread, but here's my thoughts. There's a difference between addiction as a disease, bad habits, and socially acceptable choices. Legal policy shouldn't be made on the second category. Perhaps not the third either although I was in that category tonight and wouldn't want the test imposed on me for no good reason.

As for the first category, I think it's been amply pointed out that addicts are not the worst danger on the road. They should be caught and penalized, but we shouldn't lose perspective of what the real risks are. The denial in the addicts that you point out is amply present in the perpetrators and defenders of worse types of negligence.

Thanks for your reasoned reply.

Yes, I had 100’s of hours leading alcohol etc. groups—usually with an AAA partner.

You said:

As for the first category, I think it’s been amply pointed out that addicts are not the worst danger on the road. They should be caught and penalized, but we shouldn’t lose perspective of what the real risks are. The denial in the addicts that you point out is amply present in the perpetrators and defenders of worse types of negligence.

= = = =

I disagree. The last I read the stats on such . . . alcohol IS the worse cause of the worst road accidents in severity as well as frequency, raw numbers killed, maimed etc.

Yes, anger and sleepiness are also serious problems as increasingly are cell phones. But alcohol still has all of them beat—probably combined.

There are no worse types of dangers in terms of raw numbers etc. I suppose you could call terrorists worse or psychotics with guns on the free way shooting willy nilly—but those are not very common, yet. Alcohol still has them beat in numbers and brutality.

Innocent children burning slowly to death trapped in a vehicle is not a pretty site. It’s not a pretty smell. It’s not a pretty memory. It’s not a comforting thought. It’s not justifiable as

a Bill of Rights protected RIGHT TO RECREATIONAL MAYHEM, DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.