In a battle of opposing views on alcohol, Stephen Hamilton says there should be more studies on the National Transportation Safety Board's proposal.
"What we are really talking about here is prohibition, but we can't just say it because folks just aren't going to accept it so we're going to just chip away at your rights a little at a time so hopefully you just won't notice when you don't have any more rights," said Stephen Hamilton, local attorney.
The NTSB wants to lower the blood alcohol content limit from .08 to .05 in an attempt to reduce the amount of drunk driving.
Hamilton said that we should know all of the facts before we change the law.
"I don't see it, I do not believe that you will see any difference what-so-ever. I mean, there are no studies, so if you want to change a law that involves science, what you should do is have peer review studies, studies within the scientific community that say, yes, these changes will have that effect," said Hamilton.
Dawn Bevan who works with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) does not agree with Hamilton. She said that there are no safe amount of drinks to have before getting behind the wheel.
"The problem is, you don't know what your limit is. You don't know what one drink will put you at and its going to be a different set of circumstances for each person and for each day. Our body metabolizes alcohol in a different way. Your body is different than mine. Your body is going to be different today than tomorrow depending on what foods you have had, what medications you have had, so there is no way to tell what is safe. The only safe thing is to never drink and drive," said Bevan
She also said that lowing the BAC will not do much to fix the problem of drunk driving and legislators need to focus on punishment instead.
"So we need to stick with strict punishments, we need to stick to those interlock devices for all DWI offenders. We need to stick to the punishment and let people know, look, this is what's going to happen to you if you drink and drive. Everyone thinks that oh, I'm not going to cause a wreck, I'm not going to get killed, I'm not going to kill somebody else, that doesn't happen to me, that happens to other people. But you know what happens to everyone? They get arrested and they get a DWI," she said.
Hamilton on the other hand says that this really just comes down to government intrusion into our lives and he thinks science will back up his claims that one beer will not affect the average citizen in an adverse way.
The NTSB is only an advisory organization and only the legislature can change the limits.
