CSPI is another notoriously anti-alcohol organization that has jumped on the "let's arrest social drinkers" bandwagon. Never mind that the General Accounting Office (basically the number-crunchers for Congress) says there is no evidence proving that chasing and arresting social drinkers saves lives.
Recently, CSPI issued an action alert on the "Booze News" section of their website regarding the issue of a national .08% BAC arrest threshold. Their top talking point:
"If all states lowered their BAC [blood alcohol concentration] limits to .08, alcohol-related highway deaths would decrease by 500-600 per year (Hingson et al...)"
But the GAO has said, "The [Hingson] study's conclusion that 500 to 600 fewer fatal crashes would occur annually if all states had .08 BAC [blood alcohol concentration] laws is unfounded."
Either CSPI genuinely missed the GAO report or it's intentionally misleading the public to support legislation that would not be effective in reducing alcohol related traffic fatalities. For more information about .08% BAC laws and the debate surrounding a lower drunk driving arrest threshold, check out the American Beverage Institute's website at www.abionline.org.
