completely OT to prove alcoholic

I joke about drinking, and may have a beer or two a year (my choice), but for the most part don't drink. Don't care who does, really don't, but drinking and driving don't mix. Really doesn't.

Mark

If an alchoholic was at fault in an accident but was stone cold sober at the time, would that be cause for additonal penalty just because he was an alchoholic even though alcohol had no affect on his driving abilities at that point in time?

Under the Alchoholics Anonymous definition of an alchoholic- if you are one you'll always be one, doesn't matter if your last drink was an hour ago or fifty years ago.

Please don't think that I'm defending alchoholism or drunk driving here- I'm not. I've had first-hand experience with both in my past and I'd be the first person to say if the wreck was caused by the guy being drunk and driving then he's guilty and should pay the penalty. We all need to accept the responsibility of being held accountable for our actions. Whether the guy was drunk every day for the past twenty years or had had just drank for the first time in his life should make no difference- he was in the wrong and should not have been driving.

The tough thing about the original posters case is shown right here on this thread- being an "alcoholic" isn't really a set-in-stone affliction like being, say, a diabetic is. Ask ten different people what qualifies a person as an alcoholic and you'll get at least eight different answers. What some call an alcoholic others will term as an abuser. Some may call a guy who sits and watches tv most every night after work and drinks a 6 pack an alcoholic, even though he can go on a two week vacation and never touch a drop the whole time and not miss it. Others say that the alcoholic is defined by someone whos drinking has caused problems in their life, whether with work, family, health, law, or whatever. Yet other will tell you that it's only the guys you see stumbling down the alleys in the middle of the day that are alcoholics. It just isn't a "one size fits all" problem- it affects everyone differently.

And since someone brought up the statistic that cell phone users are just as dangerous as drunk drivers, I read someplace that fatigue- falling asleep at the wheel- causes WAY more accidents each year than drunk drivers do. But yet there's no law against that.

There is a difference between alcohol abuse and dependence. If a person starts at a normal emotional level, goes out and has a few too many with friends in the name of fun, gets home responsibly does not kick the dog, wakes up the am and shakes the cobwebs loose and can function without another drink, that is abuse.

Alcohol dependence is when a person starts out depressed, drinks to get to a normal emotional level has problems getting home or problems when arriving there, wakes up in the am and needs to drink to get to what most people consider normal. This is the person to be concerned about.

Hope this helps. Doc