Sadly, on Day 25 of Dry July drinking and driving is very much in the headlines.
I've been enjoying being able to go out and socialise without having to be conscious of alcohol consumption in respect of driving.
Day | Tuesday 25th July |
|---|---|
Days without alcohol | 40 |
Funds raised | $3,387.86 |
Badges earned | 3 weeks Dry |
I'm feeling | Optimistic |
Position on leaderboard | 5 |
Alcohol Limits
In Aotearoa New Zealand people under the age of 20 have a zero-alcohol limit to drive legally. While for an adult you can drive with up to 50 milligrams of alcohol per milliliter of blood and be within the limit.
It seems odd that we would impose a higher standard for young people than we would for adults. We are effectively saying, don't do as I do, do as I say. Hypocrisy much?
It's quite hard to find information about how these limits evolved, but it seems that limits have changed much less often than I had thought.
As far as I can tell there have been just three revisions in the 40 years I have lived in God's own country. I remember the consternation when the limits were lowered significantly in 1993. Everyone suddenly started not drinking at all when they were driving, a good idea while it lasted - which was not long.
Zero for everyone?
A genuine zero-alcohol blood level seems to me to be an unattainable goal, given that there are plenty of foods we regularly consume that can contain traces of alcohol. Most of the allegedly zero-alcohol beers on offer carefully state in very small print that they contain no more than 0.5% alcohol.
I would hope for the sake of our rangatahi drivers that the Police measuring systems are not sensitive enough to detect the blood alcohol consequences of a burger bun washed down with kombucha, and maybe there aren't any because the body can metabolise that amount, I don't know.
Regardless, I wonder why we can't have a meaningful dialogue about this. Zero alcohol limits would be consistent with both public health and road safety strategy, and it would make policing more straightforward.
It seems like the elephant in the room.
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Thanks for reading!
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