The Chicago Tribune recently report on how restaurants and bars are being required by insurance companies as a prerequisite to cover to train waiters, waitresses and bartenders on when to say when.  Can you say two drink maximum?  I’d like a glass of wine with dinner?  I’m sorry sir you already had two cocktails at the bar we have a two drink maximum.  Enter ”new temperance movement,” quoting Stephen Greger, loss control director for commercial business at Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. The California-based insurer made alcohol safety training a requirement for liquor liability coverage about 10 years ago.

“‘There is a growing societal awareness of drinking because of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions),’ he said, noting that pressure from such groups contributed to the 2000 federal law lowering the legal blood alcohol content, or BAC, limit for driving in the United States to .08. That means less than one drop of alcohol can be present in the bloodstream for every 1,000 drops of blood; some experts said there is pressure to further revise it downward to .05.”

The Constitution has left the Building and the Sunday School is in control.  These are in essense the opening salvos in the war on social drinking or the new prohibition.  By continuing restrictions on drinking and driving, utilizing inaccurate breath testing devices with sampling variances of +/- 0.02, and insurance restrictions on drinking establishments, your freedom to drink responsibly is slowly disappearing.

Georgia Breath Testing manuals actually show that drivers are less likely to have an accident from 0.01 to 0.05 than people who don’t drink probably because they know they have been drinking and are extra attentive but the alcohol has not effected there physical dexterity.  From 0.05 to 0.08 alcohol has no effect on the typical person.  Above 0.08 to 0.12, the jury is out but my experience is that most of my clients look sober and when presented to juries receive not guilty verdicts on the less safe alternative to blood alcohol DUIs. Stand up for your rights to responsibly consume alcoholic beverages or prepare to be casaulty in the war on social drinking.

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