Montana to join civilization

Sometimes it takes an odd news story to bring to light something really damn odd that's been going on for ages. In this case, it reveals something about the State of Montana that's really quite remarkable. Up to now, Montana has had no law prohibiting drinking alcohol while driving. I shit you not. Last month, you were perfectly within your rights to cruise on down the freeway with a nice cold one in one hand, the wheel in the other. And evidently noone saw a problem with this. Now, I'm generally all for personal freedoms. Your body, your life, your decisions. The key limitation being when you impinge on other people's rights. Or run them over. That's a bad thing. So that said, I'm not sure where Montana has been the last 100 years. Do they not realize alcohol impairs your judgement? Hasn't a single lawmaker from the state had an unfortunate incident fuelled by alcohol? Not shockingly, and I'm sure linked to this lack of regulation, Montana has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

So what's the defence of this asinine lack of control? University of Montana sociologist Jim Burfeind said the state’s holdout status was understandable, given the long, lonely drives often required when only 927,000 people live in a state the size of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio combined. “We think we’re a very different place than other places and that we don’t have to run by the rules that other people have to in more congested areas,” Burfeind said. Um... yeah. All I know is, putting someone behind the wheel of a 2 ton truck capable of hitting 100k an hour in ten seconds, and letting them booze it up while they're at it is a bad idea by any reasonable standard. Are you allowed to get sloshed while at a shooting range? Are Surgeons allowed to quench their thurst with a nice brew while some patient is under the knife? You may not run into many people on those long stretches of highway, but when you do, having a brew makes you a helluva lot more likely to actually run into them.