My colleague Radley Balko has a great piece in the Washington Post today on “Zero Tolerance Makes Zero Sense.” He takes on one of the most dangerous, most self-defeating, and most fanatically unthinking groups in America today, the “Mothers Against Drunk Driving.”
Radley quite sensibly poses a choice:
High school kids drink, particularly during prom season. We might not be comfortable with that, but it’s going to happen. It always has. The question, then, is do we want them drinking in their cars, in parking lots, in vacant lots and in rented motel rooms? Or do we want them drinking at parties with adult supervision, where they’re denied access to the roads once they enter?
The approach in most European countries is far more sensible than what MADD has promoted in the U.S. Typically, people there can drink at 16 (or younger, especially when their parents are present), but they can’t drive until 18. That means that they go to pubs and restaurants and learn to drink in public, after which they take the bus or streetcar back home. In contrast, American teens can’t drink in public or in the presence of any adults, so … they get in their cars, where they can be away from adults, and that’s where they drink. Thanks a whole lot for that, “Mothers Against Drunk Driving.” Thanks for putting your own feelings of self-righteousness above any concern for real-world consequences. Thanks for every death caused by your utterly stupid and indefensible policies.