Plus, wait until the increased revenue streams come in to the state/local governments, police overtime, plentiful work for lawyers and judges, more people going to jail....it will be a dollar bonanza. No way they raise it back up.
It's about money, period.
exactly. DUI fines are over a grand for a first offense, not even taking into account the repeat offenders. the amount of money this would pump into law firms, prisons, and counties would be immense. defense attorneys would love this shit to pieces.
True with Reagan but if memory serves me correct Clinton was instrumental with having it lowered to .08 by threatening to withhold highway construction money.
My whole issue with the BAC threshold is mistakes happen with blood/breath testing and it's not an exact science by ANY stretch. There has been a case in Texas and another in Mass I believe of outright falsification of blood tests by lab works. Over 5000 false results in Texas and not sure about Mass but it was a huge clusterfuck as well. It's an out right injustice to have that on your record because some asshole in a lab is fucking with the results.
the .08 thing gradually rolled out over the years. i'm in PA and it wasn't until 2003 that they adopted the 0.08 limit, well after the Clinton era. that was more public pressure from MADD/SADD and what have you.
breathalyzer tests are bullshit as well because different people have different tolerances. a heavy drinker might be able to pass a field test flawlessly at 0.15%, but a college binge drinker who only touches booze twice a month would be on his ass at under 0.10. it's been shown that alcoholics are far more functioning at high BACs just because their bodies are used to it. not that i'm encouraging alcoholism, but it just shows that using BAC as a metric for drunkenness is like using BMI as a metric for health.
