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Have you ever driven your vehicle or another person’s vehicle after you had consumed an alcoholic beverage? Most people skate around the truth either denying it completely or justifying it to themselves by downplaying it to “not a big deal”. If you think hard enough, you could probably think of at least two people you know who have driven home intoxicated. According to a recent article published in USA Today, of 2,509 adults who were surveyed, 9% admitted that they had driven while intoxicated.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) survey of 127,000 adults found that 15% of drivers who were over the age of 18 admitted that they, too had driven under the influence at least once within the past year. What’s more baffling, perhaps, is the fact that despite decades of advertising and media campaigns to try to deter people from drinking and driving, the fact of the matter is that they’re still doing it.

So, What Do We Do About it?

Some people would argue (as is mentioned in the article) that the best way to slow down the number of people who drive drunk is to make ignition interlocks mandatory. However, there are still loopholes with this way of thinking. The root of the problem, it would seem, is that many drivers see the ads and hear the news about driving while drunk and they know that it is bad. However, a lot of them don’t take the rules seriously. They view the legal issues as suggestions rather than law and, therefore, treat it accordingly. Things won’t change unless people’s attitudes change. And we all know the saying that “you can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink.” The same thinking could be applied here. No matter how many times we force-feed the issue, people aren’t going to get it until they want to or until it’s too late.

For more information on drug and alcohol addiction, contact Mark Houston Recovery today!

Tags: Health and Wellness, News //