Yeah! While you're at it, remove all the regulations from alcohol, including regulation on BAC while driving a car. I mean, really, you can do whatever you want to yourself! If driving on public roads at a BAC of 0.35 is criminal, I don't want to be law-abiding!
If you were the only person using the public roads, I wouldn't see a problem with it; the problem is that other people are using the roads too, and at that point, you're putting those people at risk.
I'm sorry if I take a bit of a negative attitude towards it all, I just get tired of people who completely overlook the impacts their own actions may have on other people.
If you break the law or cause damage while under the influence you should be held accountable for your actions. I don't think anyone is arguing against that.
We have that law currently and it doesn't stop drunk driving. Until people become rational actors (which they manifestly are not), we cannot just stop at prohibiting outcomes, but also must prohibit means to some degree.
So people will ignore laws against drunk driving, but will obey laws against drinking in the first place. Interesting theory, if only we had some historical evidence to see if that would be likely to work...
He's saying they don't anticipate the damages they will cause driving drunk, so there are laws against drunk driving (the 'means')
I don't think anyone is arguing mj should be outlawed because of driving, or that alcohol should be either, the point is there are careful considerations that must be made and you can't just remove all regulations and expect things to go swimmingly
You think using mj has no impact or risk on other people? How about driving baked? It's probably not as bad as driving drunk, but when you're on the same road as me piloting a 2-ton missile around me, 'not as bad as wasted' isn't quite good enough.
This is exactly the kind of attitude I'm talking about.
I don't drive when high. And if I did, it would still be a DUI even if marijuana was legal. DUI laws are not whats under debate. You're confounding the issue. And on a side note, I agree it's less harmful than driving drunk and alcohol is legal to possess.
Note that the laws in this area aren't limited to BAC; if any substance including prescription medicines makes you incompetent behind the wheel that's enough.
We just focus on BAC because it's easy to measure and we're pretty damned sure alcohol to excess is the biggest current problem.
