May 11, 2008

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The Candidates’ Positions

Hillary Clinton
U.S. Senator from New York.

Barack Obama

U.S. Senator from Illinois.

John Edwards
Former U.S. Senator from North Carolina.

Mike Gravel
Former U.S. Senator (AK)

>> More on Election 2008

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Fast Facts

According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD), close to 14 million Americans use and abuse alcohol. One third are women and the rest are men. Fifty percent of adults in the United States admit to having alcoholism in their family. One out of every four children come from families where alcohol abuse is a problem.
Blood Alcohol Level Percentage and Its Effects: .02-.03--Mood elevation;slight muscle relaxation. .05-.06--Relaxation and warmth; increased reactiontime; decreased fine muscle coordination. .08-.09--Impaired balance, speech, vision, hearing, and muscle coordination; euphoria. .14-.15--Gross impairment of physical and mental control .20-.30--Severely intoxicated; very little control of mind or body. .40-.50--Unconscious; deep coma; death from respiratory depression.
In Crime in the United States, 2002 (Washington, D.C., 2003), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that of the 13.7 million estimated arrests in 2002, drug abuse violations accounted for 1.5 million arrests, or about 11 percent, making drug abuse violations the highest single category of arrest, followed by driving under the influence (1.5 million arrests).
The Monitoring the Future survey reports that in 2004 the proportion of eighth graders who said they had tried alcohol in their lifetimes was 43.9%, with 64.2% of tenth graders and 76.8% of twelfth graders reporting this same behavior. When asked if they had been drunk in their lives, 19.9% of eighth graders, 42.3% of tenth graders, and 60.3% of twelfth graders reported that they had.

Drunk Driving

Prior to the 1960s, few states had laws punishing drunk driving; although drunk-driving accidents were considered a tragedy, they were not a crime. By 1960, most states had passed broad laws prohibiting drunk driving, sometimes known as driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI). Today, all states have a threshold of .08 BAC (blood alcohol content): those driving at or over this limit are legally considered drunk.

Drunk Driving Overview

Across the United States 28,000 people died in alcohol-related automobile crashes in 1980. That number dropped to a record low of 15,786 in 1999---a decline of over 40 percent. Many commentators argue that this reduction in drunk-driving fatalities is largely the result of the public awareness campaigns and the lobbying…>> (read more)

Drunk Driving Points of View

4 Preventing Underage Drinking Will Reduce Drunk Driving Fatalities
5 Zero Tolerance Laws Deter Underage Drinking and Driving
6 Legal Drinking Age of 21 Does Not Reduce Drunk Driving
7 Repeat Drunk Drivers Are a Threat to Public Safety
8 Combination of Legal Sanctions Will Stop Repeat Drunk Drivers
9 Ignition Interlock Devices Prevent Drunk Driving
10 Lower Blood-Alcohol Concentration Limits for Drivers Will Save Lives
11 Lower Blood-Alcohol Concentration Limits for Drivers Will Not Save Lives
12 Police Use of Passive Alcohol Sensors Erodes Civil Liberties
13 Sobriety Checkpoints and Blanked Patrols Reduce Alcohol-Related Crashes
14 Sobriety Checkpoints Are Unconstitutional
15 Police Use of Passive Alcohol Sensors Deters Drunk Driving
16 All Drunk Driving Offenders Should Lose Their Cars
17 Only Repeat Drunk Driving Offenders Should Lose Their Cars
18 Drunk Driving Should Be Legalized

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