Either you are drunk or not. Just as you are either pregnant or not.

Sure there are definite tests for both situations. I hope a breathalyzer is available at each one of the “drinking stations” that are provided for the potential drunks. I hope each person who has had a drink or two will submit to the “test” before getting on the road and endangering my family and yours.

No, the Bible doesn’t definitively say a Christian should not drink, but it does say we are not to get drunk.

The amount of alcohol that defines drunken driving in Glasgow is .08 and is well above the amount that can produce impairment (about 50 mg/dl).

“A level of 100 mg/dl is usually achieved when a person weighing 70 kilograms [140 pounds +] drinks three to four drinks per hour. A standard drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 1 ounce of liquor or distilled spirits, or 4 ounces of wine. However, there is some variability because of individual differences in alcohol metabolism, which varies because of such factors as stomach contents (food ingested), speed of alcohol consumption, gender, age and body size.

Impairment from alcohol consumption has been shown to occur at the level of 50 mg/dl. In women and elderly persons, impairment may occur at lower levels. Most people demonstrate impaired driving at levels of 50 to 70. The probability that an auto crash will occur begins to rise when the driver’s BAC [Blood Alcohol Content] exceeds 40 mg/dl, and rises dramatically when it reaches 100 mg/dl (http://www.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.

fcgi?rid=hstat5.bilist.37281

#37288, American Medical Association, Council on Scientific Affairs, 1986).

A level of 150 or higher without noticeable intoxication indicates a high degree of tolerance to alcohol.” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?highlight=drink&rid=hstat5.section.36706#36716)

Do we really want to introduce a known public health nuisance into our fair community?

The publication Healthy People 2000 (ftp://text.nlm.nih.gov/pub/outgoing/PEP/aar.sgm#c1dhhs90 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1990), part of the Federal Government's initiative to reduce the incidence, prevalence, and consequences of high-priority health problems, indicated that alcohol use contributes to morbidity, injuries, and mortality from cirrhosis of the liver — the Nation’s ninth leading cause of death — vehicular and workplace accidents, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, and homicides and suicides.

The consequences of alcohol abuse call for government and community efforts in many areas: dealing with drunken-driving accidents; handling alcohol-related crime; treating alcohol dependence and related medical problems, including secondary consequences such as fetal alcohol syndrome; and making up for lost productivity from workers who are impaired, incarcerated, victims of crime, in need of medical treatment, or dead before their time due to alcohol. In addition to the tragedy is enormous expense: the economic costs of alcohol abuse in the United States came to approximately $99 billion in 1990 and were projected to reach $124 billion by 1997 (ftp://text.nlm.nih.gov/pub/outgoing/PEP/aar.sgm#c1pars93 Parsons and Kamenca 1993; ftp://text.nlm.nih.gov/pub/outgoing/PEP/aar.sgm#c1rice93 Rice 1993). [Prevention Enhancement Protocols System (PEPS)]

People who abuse alcohol are both more likely to be involved in physically traumatic events and more likely to be seriously hurt in them than nondrinkers are. In fact, according to the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (ftp://text.nlm.nih.gov/pub/outgoing/PEP/aar.sgm#c1stus97 Stussman 1997), more than half of all emergency-room visits associated with alcohol or drug use involve traumatic injuries. The report also notes that individuals who die from injuries are more likely to have used alcohol more frequently and heavily than are those who die from disease.

Other studies indicate that alcohol is a factor in 21 to 47 percent of drownings, 35 to 63 percent of deaths from falls, and 12 to 61 percent of fire-related deaths (ftp://text.nlm.nih.gov/pub/outgoing/PEP/aar.sgm#c1hing93 Hingson and Howland 1993). Burn victims with blood alcohol concentrations (BAC's) above 0.06 percent were more than twice as likely to die as burn victims with BAC's of 0.06 or less (ftp://text.nlm.nih.gov/pub/outgoing/PEP/aar.sgm#c1haum95 Haum et al. 1995).