Are you kidding me, binge drinkers drive drunk?! Who would have thought that? I am so surprized. Someone actually got paid for this research and it was probably with my tax dollars. Let's have a show of hands, who believes that only 12% drank?

Back in the early 90s, when I directed the Substance Abuse Epidemiology Unit for the New Mexico Department of Health, we compared responses to the CDC-sponsored Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) with DUI arrests. Comparing those two data sets, we estimated that only about 2% of drunk-driving episodes in New Mexico resulted in a DUI arrest. It was a sad commentary in a state with one of the nation's highest alcohol-related fatal crash rates that still allowed drive-up windows for alcohol sales. Today, with the drive-up windows closed, mandated alcohol server training, more cultural support for sobriety and much more vigorous DUI enforcement; it would be interesting to repeat the study.

I would bet that another 10 to 20% lied about having driven drunk after their last binge. There might be ways of estimating this from the existing survey. Data from roadside stops might also shed some light.

1. Conceivably many, especially youngsters, get pressured into overdosing before they remember, hey, what will I do to get the car home? 2. At this point, how many (research, please-- or does anyone dare) count on a cigarette "or two" to sober up sufficiently to enable driving? How far is the nicotine industry complicit in drunk driving episodes? 3. One Canadian study suggested 45% of beer sales consisted of binge drinking. Is any replication of this in the pipeline, to establish how big a stake the alcohol industry has in catastrophic overdose?

A few years ago I listened to about 30 hours of legislative debate on "dram shop liability" legislation, most of it devoted to the issue of "overserving." It became clear that there is much resistance to policies that address overserving, thanks to intense lobbying by the hospitality industry, led by the state's restaurant association. Not only were such policies considered generally unenforceable, but emphasis reverted consistently to individual liberty and responsibility. In other words, it became unamerican to suggest that some government agency -- law enforcement or public health -- determine how much one should or should not drink, regardless of consequences. This in spite of state law that prohibits sale and service to "intoxicated persons" - a law which is widely ignored throughout the nation. It also became clear that "intoxication" was simply considered synonymous with that of the "falling-down-drunk," rather than more subtle observations.