General News Scotland lowers drink-drive limit

BBC News - Scotland cuts drink-drive alcohol limit

A step in the right direction, although personally I would prefer it to be set to zero percent with alcohol.

I think with the current law people presume that because the limit is legal it must be perfectly safe. The fact is that even at lower safety limits of 0.05% blood/alcohol (which is the common limit around the world) drivers are still up to twice as likely to be involved in an accident than if they were sober.

It's one thing deciding to taking a risk on yourself being injured in a crash, but putting other road users and pedestrians at a heightened risk has always felt like a selfish decision to me. I do feel a bit differently in countries with very sparsely populated areas and more open roads though (perhaps some leeway here would be OK) - but in populated areas...zero tolerance. Without doubt.

I do think that as drinking is seen as so "integral" to our culture/society that the law bends over backwards to accommodate the behavior, ignoring proven risks and setting double-standards by criminalising other safer drugs. Interestingly I was just reading about Australia, where in many of the states you can drive after drinking alcohol (up to 0.05% blood/alcohol) yet driving under the influence of marijuana is banned full stop. This is despite the fact alcohol has a far greater impairment on coordination and actually increases risk tasking (cannabis has the opposite effect here, encouraging caution), some reading here and here. That is definitely not to say driving stoned is safe, but it is a far lesser risk than driving under the influence of alcohol (one of the reasons I laugh at people who argue pot legalization will magically triple/quadruple/decuple road accidents).