Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

  • Home
  • About
  • Editorial
  • Birthdays
  • Art & Beer

Socialize

  • Dribbble
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Powered by Head Quarters Built on WordPress
You are here: Home / Beers / Texas Considering Lowering Drunk Driving Standard To One Beer

Texas Considering Lowering Drunk Driving Standard To One Beer

October 15, 2010 By Jay Brooks

texas
According to Fox TV Channel 14 in El Paso, Texas is reporting that the Texas state legislature is considering a law which could make it legal to arrest people who’ve had as little as one beer or a glass of wine.

According to Fox News:

The proposed law doesn’t saying people are drunk at that level, but it does say that drivers are “buzzed” at that point. The law targets drivers with a blood alcohol level between .05 and .07. It’s called the DWAI law, or driving while ability impaired.

I know I’ll take heat for saying this, but it seems to presuppose that any person whose BAC is below .08% is “impaired” to the extent that they’re a danger to themselves or others by driving. But that’s exactly the presumption we already made when we lowered the BAC standard from .1% to .08%. Even though it’s suggested that the penalties for driving “impaired” will be less than driving “drunk,” it will still have a chilling effect on businesses that serve alcohol and even further criminalizes legal behavior.

I’m not in favor of people driving drunk, but continually lowering the standard by which we measure that does nothing to actually stop the real problem drunk drivers. It’s not the solution, but it appears to be the extent of lawmakers and neo-prohibitionists’ creativity.

Fox News concludes with the time table for the new law. “The Texas Senate will discuss the proposed law and possibly pass it in January.”

Filed Under: Beers, Editorial, News, Politics & Law Tagged With: Law, Southern States, Texas



Comments

  1. Spencer says

    October 16, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    I was surprised when my homebrew club got a breathalyzer (a decent quality one that we calibrate according to its maintenance schedule). At .08 BAC, I do not feel safe to drive. In fact, I don’t feel safe at .06. So, on that basis, it’s hard to disagree with the .08 level. On the other hand, I know that most of serious drunk driving is done by people with BAC well over 0.10, so lowering the level further isn’t going to do much to reduce the real problem drunk drivers.

  2. first stater says

    October 17, 2010 at 10:53 am

    It’s only Texas with a head in the sand response. The neo-prohibitionists are chipping away, 0.01 at a time. I’m sure there is a great following of this legislation throughout America. Just my opinion.

    • Jay Brooks says

      October 17, 2010 at 10:58 am

      No, you’re quite right. The same thing is being tried in other states, and I believe it’s even been successful in a few places.

Find Something

Northern California Breweries

Please consider purchasing my latest book, California Breweries North, available from Amazon, or ask for it at your local bookstore.

Beer Bulletin Email

Enter your email address to receive daily digests:

Recent Comments

  • Susan Appel on Historic Beer Birthday: John Roehm
  • S. Pavelka on Beer Birthday: Rich Norgrove
  • Celebrating Texas History With Alamo Beer: An Iconic Taste Of The Lone Star State – SanctuaryBrewCo on Fictional Beer Brands
  • Neal Carey on Historic Beer Birthday: Anton Zahm
  • Experience The Taste Of Duff Beer: Limited-Edition Cans And Home Brewing Kits – SanctuaryBrewCo on Fictional Beer Brands

Recent Posts

  • Beer In Ads #4342: Miss Rheingold 1955 Goes Caroling February 4, 2023
  • Historic Beer Birthday: Peter P. Straub Jr. February 4, 2023
  • Historic Beer Birthday: William Sebastian Sohn February 4, 2023
  • Historic Beer Birthday: Louis Camille Maillard February 4, 2023
  • Historic Beer Birthday: Adolph Coors February 4, 2023

Tag Cloud

Advertising Anheuser-Busch Announcements Bay Area Belgium Brewers Association Brewing Equipment Budweiser Business California Christmas Europe France Germany Guinness Health & Beer History Holidays Hops Humor Infographics Kegs Law Mainstream Coverage Miller Brewing Northern California Pabst Packaging Patent Pennsylvania Press Release Prohibitionists Rheingold San Francisco Schlitz Science Science of Brewing Sports Statistics The Netherlands UK Uncategorized United States Video Washington

The Sessions

session_logo_all_text_1500

Next Session: Dec. 7, 2018
#142: One More for the Road
Previous Sessions
  • #141: Future of Beer Blogging
  • #140: Pivo
  • #139: Beer & the Good Life
  • #138: The Good in Wood
  • #137: German Wheat
Archive, History & Hosting

Typology Tuesday

Typology-png
Next Typology:
On or Before March 29, 2016
#3: Irish-Style Dry Stout
Previous Typologies
  • #2: Bock Feb. 2016
  • #1: Barley Wine Jan. 2016
Archive & History

This month’s posts

February 2023
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728  
« Jan    

BBB Archives