The National Minimum Drinking Age Act (MLDA) prohibits the purchase and/or public possession of alcoholic beverages by those under age 21. It does not prohibit persons under 21 from drinking. Nor does it require states to prohibit such drinking. So its title is unfortunately deceptive. Thus, under many conditions is underage drinking legal. Public Possession …
Arrests for DWI or DUI should be for those who are driving while intoxicated. False arrests for DWI or DUI for medical conditions are unacceptable. They can also be fatal. Sober diabetic drivers, those with liver disease, are fasting, or are eating a low carb diet shouldn’t be arrested. Any of these these conditions can …
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was founded in 1980 to reduce drunk driving, but the group has become neo-prohibitionist, and a self-serving bureaucracy.
It’s upsetting to learn that arrests for intoxication rose sharpley. Specifically, it more than doubled within a period of only five years. Intoxication is never safe. It can harm the drinker as well as others. Fortunately, increases in arrests are not uniform across the country Arrests for Intoxication Rose Sharply Bangor Maine’s Bangor Daily News reported …
A Pennsylvania man was being treated for irregular heartbeat. He described his drinking behaviors, presumably in confidence, to doctors treating him. As a result he lost his driver’s license. The toxicology report from the hospital showed he had no alcohol in his system. So, tell and lose license! PennDOT The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) …
Drunken driving was accepted behavior until the early 1980s. Then Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) raised our consciousness. As did Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD),* Remove Intoxicated Drivers (RID) and other groups. Now, drunk driving is unacceptable. Decades Ago Decades ago, Dean Martin and many others took pride how much they drank. Alcohol abuse and …
There will never be enough police to prevent underage alcohol purchases. The problem can never be solved by hiring ever more police. But we must have other ways of preventing underage alcohol purchases. Fortunately, Alaska has thought creatively and uses an economic incentive to reduce underage alcohol purchases. State law permits an alcohol licensee to …
Compliance checks or stings for underage alcohol sales are very popular. However, to be legal, they must be done without entrapment. Basically, entrapment is inducing people to commit a crime they are not “predisposed” to commit. Nor would they ordinarily commit. The Department of Justice stresses that “Entrapment is a complete defense to a criminal …
Open house party hosting can be dangerous to both finances and freedom. Most states permit parents to serve their own children alcohol. However, it is illegal to do so with the offspring of others. Even when they give permission. A prosecutor in Florida ran for office on a promise to crack down on open house …
“Raid in the shade: Men with guns are cracking down on brand-name bar umbrellas.” So wrote headlines in the Times-Picayune. Strange but true. They’re protecting the public from seeing alcohol beverage brand names. Armed officers of the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) have been making demands. Specifically, that cafes remove all their …
