For anyone that supports a zero alcohol tolerance, I certianly hope you have never voluntarily introduced a distraction to your driving. Eating, drinking, glancing at a map, the radio, talking to passengers, driving while tired, etc. If you do those things and yet support a zero alcohol tolerance ideology.. well you're just a huge hypocrite and I hate you.
The point of my post is that we either play by the rules, or risk change that most will find unfavourable in order to ensure safety for all. Would I want to see 0.0? No, I like a beer with dinner, and would feel unjustly charged when I know I'm safe. Of course, I'm a 1-beer person, so in reality, I could care less if it was 0.0 or 1.0, as far as my impairment level is concerned.
Of course all of us, at some point, have a distraction introduced into the car while driving. Is that also risky behaviour? Yes. But I would like to think that we all operate within our own limits. The limit established by the law for drinking is there because the effects of alcohol have been proven to be too great of a risk for most at that level.
Sure, we could eliminate all impaired laws, and live by some utopian idea that all are good people and wont drive when they are not able, but the reality is that type of world does not exist. If no impaired laws existed, perhaps YOU would not risk it, but that does not mean that some other idiot won't try to see how much he/she can drink before they just can't drive. Eliminating the criminal offence would also eliminate the ability to incarcerate for repeat offenders. Wouldn't you want a repeat drunk driver who mamed you to spend some time behind bars? The fine and license suspension of the first offence did nothing to stop him from repeating this action, so what then? Is the prospect of jail not a deterrent for other anti-social behaviour?
The thing is, at any limit, the existence thereof DOES prevent people from drinking and driving. They are aware that there is a magical number which they cannot be over, and it makes them choose the safer route. Is one beer enough for you? Is it 3? Who knows, but so long as you are aware of the hefty consequences of breaching that limit, you make a choice to stay within it. And that is exactly it: it is YOUR CHOICE whether you drink at all, and when you do, to get behind the wheel. It is also then your choice to drink passed 0.05 or 0.08, but in doing so you also choose to accept the legal consequences.
Laws are not created for the decent people in society. They are created for the fools. I would say if you aren't a fool, then none of these laws should affect you.
