Soccer Dad

Smoke screen

D.C. Councilwomen Carol Schwartz has proposed banning alchohol from all DC bars. After all if the Council is about to ban smoking in bars for our own good, should it also ban alcohol. As Schwartz notes:

Indeed, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, about three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives. Further, in 2002, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available, 17,419 people died in alcohol-related traffic crashes - an average of one every 30 minutes. These deaths constituted 41 percent of the total traffic fatalities. Additionally, more than half a million people were injured in crashes where police reported that alcohol was present - an average of one person approximately every minute. This certainly impacts on our health care costs as well.

The need to be sober and drive safely is worth more than the license to drink.

Look I hate smoke and smoking but I can't buy that government has any business legislating that legitimate businesses should ban the use of legal products. If smoking is that bad, ban it altogether. Of course it just might be that it's not as bad as advertised.

Posted by SoccerDad at June 23, 2005 05:46 AM | TrackBack