[quote=Eugene...snip...People laugh at me because I don't drink beer or wine, but if I ever did since I don't have any tolerance built up for it I would be impaired at well below than the legal limit. ...snip... [/quote]

IF I'm drinking when I'm out, I limit myself to one drink every 90 minutes or so, and I stop 2+ hours before I intend to head home. On top of that, my wife doesn't drink at all

At home, I'll have a few drinks - per year.

I can't think of the last time I was impaired by drinking - probably college, and believe it or not, I got my drivers license AFTER college.

The Astro is actually a pretty robust vehicle having a solid frame underneath it. It suffers from the design issue as othee vans, mini or nowt, that the driver and passenger sit somewhat on top of the front wheels instead of behind them making the front crumple zones smaller.
But as others have said, its in a different weight class. The Astro shared a lot of basic design and parts with the S series trucks which were 1/4 ton trucks. The 1500 and 150 class of trucks and vans are 1/2 ton, the 2500/250 are 3/4 ton and the 3500/350 are 1 ton so you have a much larger heavier vehicle.

Come live in an older neighborhood now where there are a lot of drug users, the only thing keeping it partly under control is fear of getting caught. The two kids who drove into my house didn't care about hitting my house or that they could have killed me, they only worried about hiding their drugs before the police arrived. Once there is no incentive to prevent them frm doing it they will do it more often and you will see a lot more accidents from it.

If you only have a few per year then your impaired when you do have them because your body is not adjusted to the affects. Your body builds up a tolerance to the affects so that the more often you drink the less it affects you, the less often you drink the more it affects you. The blood alcohol test is a very poorly implemented standard since the amount of alcohol that affects each person will vary.

Yeah - but when I have my "few per year" - you have to take into account 2 things. 1) I weigh a LOT more than most folks 2)I tend to have my one drink, go up stairs, and go to bed, so any impairment doesn't really matter. 3) If I do have to drive, I wait at least 1 hour after my drink

An example - I went to a Christmas party on the 22nd - had about 2 oz of wine (yes, just a splash) and about 6:00pm - handed the keys to my wife, and said - I don't drive till at least 8:00pm

After that I drank water, apple cider, and gasp - diet coke

"...The blood alcohol test is a very poorly implemented standard since the amount of alcohol that affects each person will vary..."

That is very true. CA has a blood alcohol limit of .08%. I have arrested drunks that, based on the field sobriety test, I guessed were maybe a .15%, then a test showed them to be over .30%. Long time drinkers for sure.

The "average" person will burn off .02%/one ounce of alcohol every hour. So theoretically you can drink one mixed drink/can of beer, wait 60 minutes, and your BAC will be zero...

I have an uncle who is the other extreme of the spectrum, he drinks nothing but beer, but has done so for so many years that is doesn't affect him at all. He was also a professional truck driver and his driving skill shows it. We can be raking the hay field and his rows after a case of beer will be straighter and nicer than mine without me ever dribking a drop.
But the majority of people are social drinkers who may have a low blood alcohol level, even a legal one yet their reaction times may be slower since they are not used to it.

I'm looking at more in the longer-term. And I'm not really sure about it (not as sure as the hardcore-antidrug people are...).

There's nothing really that can be done about the current users. Give them their drug(s) of choice and let 'em overdose.

But I am wondering about the coming generation of junkies. Suppose the current pushers lost their incentive to sell?

If there was a perfect way to handle the problem, I would like to hear it.

But I don't like knee-jerk reactions to the problem. What we're doing now is NOT working, and has never worked. Try something else.

Sue

The one way I have never seen really tried is to attack the casual user. The casual user may remain that, and be the profit driver for the dealers, or may be on the way to becoming a more serious user. The person who holds down a professional job, works, and then every once in a while or weekend, recreationally uses drugs. Attack this class of suers, begin locking them up for short periods, long enough to screw up their jobs, education, etc., and they may lose the desire to risk buying and using.

Over the years, I arrested about 30 or so wrong way drivers, all but two of them drunk. They all had one thing in common; on a multi-lane highway, every one of them was driving the wrong way in the left hand (fast) lane. I suspect that in their befuddled little minds they thought that they were in the slow lane. So I try to avoid using the hot lane except to pass, and always take a good look down the road before I move into it...