DUI as Entertainment

[Conan71]

Are the DUI schools run by the City......I have heard that.....

Nope.  Privately owned as well as the victim impact panel company which is not affiliated with MADD.  One of our customers owns a DUI school.  I do believe though it helps to have friends in the legislature to get one up and going.  Sort of like a tag agency.

[Conan71]

Note: Of course I don't take drinking and driving lightly, it is a practice that needs to be discouraged, but people are going to go out and sometimes imbibe to much. We need to let them get out and get home with out their car.

This is not difficult.  FAIK, you can take a tipsy tow 365 days a year where they will pick you and your car up.  Other than that, we've got cabs that run 24/7 as well.  It's not the city's responsibility to make sure drunks get home safe. 

Interesting dynamic here: when I was younger and more stupid than I am now , I'd have a tendency to hand the keys over when I probably was still nearing the legal limit, but give me a few more beers and I figured I was fine to drive.  I'm real fortunate I was never arrested and never in a crash.  Certainly age has made me wiser but more than anything losing a family member and several friends to drunk drivers has made me give the problem a more honest appraisal.

The more cynical amongst you may view this as a fund raiser for law enforcement, but it's designed to make the stakes high enough to discourage drunk driving.  It's proven in countries where they've raised the risk to the point of job loss and long-term incarceration, incidence of DUI is almost nil.  Either we've not raised the stakes high enough because we are more concerned about the rights of someone to drive drunk over the rights of someone to drive home without being hit by a drunk driver or we are a nation of slow learners.  This is still one of the most easily preventable causes of death in the United States.

[Townsend]

It's not the city's responsibility to make sure drunks get home safe. 

A better transit system

[Red Arrow]

This is not difficult.  FAIK, you can take a tipsy tow 365 days a year where they will pick you and your car up.  Other than that, we've got cabs that run 24/7 as well.  It's not the city's responsibility to make sure drunks get home safe.  

Agreed, it's not the city's responsibility.  The holiday free tipsy tows wouldn't quite get me home from downtown by about a mile or two.  I don't know what they cost otherwise.  I've heard it can be really difficult to impossible to get a cab around here unless you are at the airport.  That could really turn into an expensive few drinks, but better than a DUI or hurting or killing someone.

Public transit would be the answer for most people but I'd hate to have the transit system get the reputation of having nothing but a bunch of drunks on it.  The DUI limits are low enough that too drunk to drive would not necessarily mean too drunk to ride without being obnoxioius.

[patric]

May not be the best time for the DUI industry:

With DUI arrests down inexperienced attorneys scramble for business
In this economy, it is not surprising when another industry announces a further reduction in its business. What is eye-opening is when one of those declines occurs in law firms that represent drivers charged with driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI).

Why the decline in business? Recently released federal statistics reveal that there has been a 30 percent drop in DUI/DWI arrests nationally over the last five years. In fact, arrests are at their lowest mark in nearly two decades, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The decline may be due to the down economy. Other research suggests people are still drinking as heavily as in years past, so some may just be finding cheaper ways to do so than by going to bars, night clubs and restaurants. Still others suspect that the decline in DUI arrests is a result of a reduction in law enforcement efforts as the tough economy has caused a decline in the number of police officers patrolling the streets.

[nathanm]

The decline may be due to the down economy. Other research suggests people are still drinking as heavily as in years past, so some may just be finding cheaper ways to do so than by going to bars, night clubs and restaurants. Still others suspect that the decline in DUI arrests is a result of a reduction in law enforcement efforts as the tough economy has caused a decline in the number of police officers patrolling the streets.[/font]

In a down economy, people drink cheap beer at home. Why do you think people buy beer distributors?

[Red Arrow]

In a down economy, people drink cheap beer at home. Why do you think people buy beer distributors?

In a down economy, people drink beer at home.
In a really down economy, people drink cheap beer at home.

[Hoss]

In a down economy, people drink beer at home.
In a really down economy, people drink cheap beer at home.

Cheap beer?  I'll quit before I have to give up my Sundown Wheat (obligatory Marshall reference in thread).

[Conan71]

Cheap beer?  I'll quit before I have to give up my Sundown Wheat (obligatory Marshall reference in thread).

Agreed.  I'll go back to box wine before I'd drink cheap beer at home.

[Townsend]

Agreed.  I'll go back to box wine before I'd drink cheap beer at home.

If I didn't drink cheap beer while cooking I'd be s-canned by the time I checked the char.

[Conan71]

If I didn't drink cheap beer while cooking I'd be s-canned by the time I checked the char.

Some of my best que has been after a full afternoon of Marshall's, Santa Fe, Fat Tire (insert favorite micro brew here).  There's something about smoking or grilling dead animal carcasses that lends itself to good beer.

[Townsend]

Some of my best que has been after a full afternoon of Marshall's, Santa Fe, Fat Tire (insert favorite micro brew here).  There's something about smoking or grilling dead animal carcasses that lends itself to good beer.

I respectfully offer that, at times, it tasted really good because you were drunker than a cute blonde girl in a military bar.

[nathanm]

Cheap beer?  I'll quit before I have to give up my Sundown Wheat (obligatory Marshall reference in thread).

As long as you realize that you're the exception, not the rule.

[Conan71]

As long as you realize that you're the exception, not the rule.

Yes, but faced with Natty Light or water, I think I'd reach for the water.

[nathanm]

Yes, but faced with Natty Light or water, I think I'd reach for the water.

And I'd reach into the next case for some Yuengling.