you should mosey on over to the IMHO poll about this and meet the poster who claims to have met people with a .48 BAC who properly and without assistance fill out hospital admission forms.
Fist, I was speaking of the practicality of such a system, not whether it was or is the best idea; as I’ve said, it would no doubt be too expensive.
As for why it or something else would be better than our present system, that would be because drunks tend to ignore the threat of punishment. It just isn’t working very well.
Well, once I was hiking through the Southern Sierras and I met a sasquatch named José who offered me a hit off his bong which he promised was, “Good stuff, man, better than than Acapulco Gold.” I had to pass because I was trying to make Evolution Pass before nightful, but I swear it happened just like that, no shit.
And unworkable, for the reason listed.
Well, yes. They’re drunks. When intoxicated, people do not demonstrate good judgment or rational behavior, a fact most of the rest of the developed world recognizes by penalizing DUI to a greater degree of severity than the o.p. is complaining about. Frankly, after his third DUI, he shouldn’t even have a license.
Here’s my idea, which also involves some R&D. People with a DUI are sentenced to an implant – some kind of pump which adds something to their system that makes them violently ill when they drink alcohol. So they can’t drink for a year. Second DUI, a pump loaded with 5 years worth of whatever it is (or perhaps sentenced to 5 annual reimplantations). Third conviction, pumps for a lifetime of inability to tolerate alcohol.
There are drugs that with effects like that (although you have to take them every day). They are sometimes used in treating alcoholism. I don’t think they’re very effective unless the person wants to quit drinking.
Un-fucking-workable, as in easily circumvented and prohibitively expensive to the overall public, the majority of whom seem to have no difficulty in remaining within the allowable BAC for operating a motor vehicle.
Martin
It would be a static cost. Just like seat belts and air bags. I’m not saying have a third party monitor it like it’s being done for current offenders. I think seat belts and air bags might have been thought of the same way in the early stages. Like I said, people who tamper with them could be prosecuted harder.