Josh Hancock details from police

Won't stop drunk driving until there are economic consequences. Only way to have economic consequences is through judicial intervention with court fines or through the tort system.

I always thought that a fair tax on smoking or tobacco might be a true sin tax. Add up the cost to taxpayers for the use of the product, now how much product is sold and then divide. As an example, if it costs the state a million dollars for medical care and road repair for drinking and driving, alcohol detoxification, etc. and there are a million units (bottles of beer, wine, alcohol) of liquor sold at the wholesale level, then the tax the next year would be a dollar a unit.

But I digress. We tolerate drinking and driving because society chooses to allow it. Culture in Europe knows that driving drunk may yield first offence jail sentence, lifetime driving bans and significant fines. People don't drive drunk. Americans allow 5th and 6th offenders. Bottom line: make road safety a priority. Don't allow bars to serve intoxicated patrons. Have socail programs avialable to drive drunk people home. Have legislators direct law enforcement to enforce the laws, mandate the judicial branch to mete significant sentences. Easy as pie, if people really want it.

My ranting is done. Thanks for reading.

 

Cigarettes already have been taxed into submission.

 

State governments had a great opportunity to take the tobacco lawsuit settlements and fund smoking cessation programs, cancer health care, and a variety of other beneficial health programs. Instead, they put the monies into the general funds and they were lost.

SC is right that cigarettes have been taxed into submission. The higher the tax per pack, the lower the smoking rate. Bad news for Medicare and Social Security programs, since people will be living longer and healthier. Philip Morris commissioned a 1997 study in Poland, showing the benefits of smoking to the government's bottom line.

 

Apropos of this thread, a friend gave me his ticket to a recent Yankees night game, Hughes' first start, in trhe mezzanine near the right field corner. By the fourth inning, several of the people around us are already on their fourth bottle of beer. The guy in the row in front -- with his young son -- who had been amiable enough, is screaming "assholes!" at people in the lower deck, until I told him to shut up. I take my 12-year old nephew to the mens room, and there's a guy in there, plastered, cursing at the top of his lungs about something or other, challenging people to a fight who are telling him to shut up. Outside the bathroom, we see a 20-something woman, obviously drunk, being led away by a cop, who says he's going to arrest her if she doesn't shut up. Back at our seats, we see beer flying a section over as drunken fights break out.

All I could think was, "They're all driving home."

 

There's always some drunken bozo raising Cain in the restrooms at games, and bars for that matter, too. I'll never forget walking into the pisser at Cleveland Stadium during a Browns game, and there was an overserved, overfed guy sitting in one of the sinks pinching a loaf.

 

I don't think people learn from these events. The only thing that stops them from drinking and driving is getting into an accident while drunk or having it happen to someone close to them. Trying to use Hancock as a lesson for others simply doesn't work.

 

I don't know how many people will learn anything from this, but seeing as how Hancock and I were of a similar age,it has certainly made me reconsider my own habits. I've never been as irresponsible as Hancock apparently was, but I have taken unnecessary risks before. This situation adds to the bank of memories and experiences we all draw from.

 

The problem with preventing drinking and driving is it's an action chosen while impaired. So even if you have no intention of doing it, you may change your mind or refuse to acknowledge your condition after a few drinks. That's why these horrible stories aren't a deterrent.

 

I beg to differ. when you drive to a restaurant or bar and know that you're going to havea drink or two, you have planned the potential for disaster.

 

A drink or two won't hurt you unless you are taking double shots of Bacardi 151 or something like that