Corking the Bottle

I have an A.A. friend who is a murderer. I'll call him Fred. He isn't afraid to talk about what he did. It's probably good therapy. I'm going to tell an abbreviated version of his story here that's meant to be a disincentive to drive drunk and to drink at all, period. Fred woke up one day in a hospital. He had been in a coma and couldn't remember anything. He was told he had been in a serious car accident, but he could remember nothing about it. Then they told them a person in the other car died. When Fred was discharged from the hospital, he was taken straight to jail, then convicted. He served 11 years in prison. Worse than that, he took a life and permanently changed the lives of the victim's family and friends. He didn't say if the deceased was man or woman, young or old, a parent, a knowledgeable worker someplace.... But it was a snuffed-out life caused by another's drinking. I feel sorry for Fred. He has to carry that guilt with him th...

A few years ago, I was charged with drunk driving and spent the night on the floor in a crowded jail cell. I was humiliated and, upon release, embarrassed beyond words. I was pulled over just down the road from my house. It was late morning. I hadn't had a drink since sometime the night before. I had no way of knowing my BAC was above the .08 legal limit. I felt fine. I thought. I checked out a website this morning ( https://www.factretriever.com/drunk-driving-facts ) and learned a few things: A driver with a BAC of .08 g/dL is 11 times more likely to be in a fatal accident than a driver who has consumed no alcohol. Drugs other than alcohol (such as marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of fatal collisions, usually in combination with alcohol. Drinking just three or four beers for a 170-pound male is enough to make him too drunk to drive. For an average-size woman it may take just one to three. The country with the highest rate of drunk driving deaths is So...