Experts back proposal to cut blood alcohol limit

[F5 Dave]

So you will have every 2nd person hauled down to the station to do a CBT or blood test with 98% released. That sounds like a huge waste of time & more time that the Police aren't on the frontline trying to catch real offenders. Have you thought this out?

[rustic101]

Again its about choices. People choose to drink. There are a few country around that have a Zero limit. If people choose to drive even as you say days after and fail, then so be it. Personally I'm sick to death with alcohol and certainly do not wish to share the road with anyone under any condition who may be remotely under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Alcohol is responsible for more than just drunk driving. Domestics, Disorder, Self Harm and on and on I could go... Quite frankly pass on the next excuse so we can allow it to continue. NZ needs to harden up and individuals need to face the consequences of their actions IMO

[The Stranger:Me]

Again its about choices. People choose to drink. There are a few country around that have a Zero limit. If people choose to drive even as you say days after and fail, then so be it. Personally I'm sick to death with alcohol and certainly do not wish to share the road with anyone under any condition who may be remotely under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Alcohol is responsible for more than just drunk driving. Domestics, Disorder, Self Harm and on and on I could go... Quite frankly pass on the next excuse so we can allow it to continue. NZ needs to harden up and individuals need to face the consequences of their actions IMO

Where are you going with this?
So we remove all alcohol. What about all the other things in society that cause harm, are you sick of those too, or just alcohol?
The problem with intolerance is intolerance itself. You remove alcohol from the top of the list, something else rises to the top becomes intolerable and needs to be quashed.

[scumdog]

You are right, that is a simple answer. Cough syrup and some deodorants contain alcohol. How would you account for that with a "no ambiguity" zero limit?

Obviously you have had NO experience regarding the EBA process and how it all works.

Or are a complete troll......

[Ixion]

Each of these situations; Irish Moss or High concentration of perfume may fool the initial screening device but the full CBT eliminates this. Failing that you are also able to provide a blood sample in which case either of these two situations will be completely eliminated. This include surgical hand wash and antiseptic.

No so. Your argument is , perhaps , valid for perfume. It depends on how much of the alcoholic vapour is able to permeate the lung barrier.And certainly for ahndwash, it won't penetrate teh skin

But cough medicines may contain 20% (sometime more) of ethanal (I used to make them by the thousands of tons). Drinking cough syrup containing alcohol is , metabolically, no different to drinking a Woodie containing alcohol. The alcohol enters the stomach, and from there the blood stream. The level will be low. But not zero. Zero means zero. Not 'low' or 'very low'; or 'bugger all' ;or even 'don't be bloody stupid'. Zero means one liquer choccie and you lose your licence. The CBT test at present works round this by ignoring very low levels. It reports them as zero . But if the limit is set to zero it cannot do this. Zero is zero. It must be amended to report the very low level. Which will be an offience. By by licence.

[Mom]

But cough medicines may contain 20% (sometime more) of ethanal (I used to make them by the thousands of tons). Drinking cough syrup containing alcohol is , metabolically, no different to drinking a Woodie containing alcohol.

Blah, blah, techie shit. You also need to consider inhaled broncho-dilators. They also use alcohol as a propellant.

Still, I am of the zero limit brigade. I drink. I dont generaly drive after I have been drinking. I dont like doing the maths associated with how many units I have consumed versus my body weight and my emotional state. Drink, dont drive

[twotyred]

just more feelgood nanny state crap(who said only labour did that?)...not to mention the huge revenue gathering potential...
8% of alcohol related crashes are in the 50 to 80mg range(currrently legal)
92% of alcohol related crashes are ABOVE the current maximum level.... and a THIRD of those are twice the maximum permissable level...

[Ixion]

Still, I am of the zero limit brigade. I drink. I dont generaly drive after I have been drinking. I dont like doing the maths associated with how many units I have consumed versus my body weight and my emotional state. Drink, dont drive

yers, you do. It's just a question of how LONG after drinking. If there is a zero limit, be prepared to accept no driving if you have had a drink in the last WEEK. Drink, don't drive. Ever again.

[MarkH]

FAIL!. With a zero limit you'd lose your licence. It takes four DAYS for the body to completely eliminate all alcohol, down to zero.Yes, days.

How is it a fail for me? In my post I said "I have no problem with them lowering the 80 down to 50 and making youth 10 or 20". I never said I would be happy to see 'Zero' even for youth - personally I think 0mg is stupid. If they went with 50mg for adults and 20mg for under 20s then I don't think there would be much problem from the law abiding!

There would still be those that flout the law though and they should do more about them. Even when some drunk crosses the centreline and hits my mate on his m/c putting him in hospital for months and causing the loss of his right leg just below the knee - all the drunk gets is a slap on the wrist!

I sometimes drink and I sometimes drive/ride, but it is always one or the other (right now I am not sober and I am not riding) - I like my life and I don't want to end it or anyone else's. If a drunk driver were to get sentenced to a few months in jail for the 3rd offence then I would be quite happy with that, maybe then some of them would take this a bit more seriously and take a taxi instead.

[bluebird]

Why would you drink and ride? For me it's zero. But I am quite happy to ride my pushbike home from the pub a bit pissed, at least then I won't get mugged, swift and silent!

[Ixion]

How is it a fail for me? In my post I said "I have no problem with them lowering the 80 down to 50 and making youth 10 or 20". I never said I would be happy to see 'Zero' even for youth - personally I think 0mg is stupid. If they went with 50mg for adults and 20mg for under 20s then I don't think there would be much problem from the law abiding!

.

The reference was to your statement

I have had a couple of RTDs and then driven about 3-4 hours later - but my body would have pretty much finished processing the alcohol by then (I couldn't feel any effect any more).

The point being that it would NOT "have pretty much finished processing the alcohol by then".

[p.dath]

How is it a fail for me? In my post I said "I have no problem with them lowering the 80 down to 50 and making youth 10 or 20". I never said I would be happy to see 'Zero' even for youth - personally I think 0mg is stupid. If they went with 50mg for adults and 20mg for under 20s then I don't think there would be much problem from the law abiding!

I would like to see a zero limit for youths. At the moment many youths will fail the current limit if they have even one drink. The problem with having a non-zero limit that is less than a single glass is it falsely gives the impression they can have something to drink and be legal. They end up breaking the law by accident. A zero law stops these people being prosecuted by re-inforcing that even a single drink will put them over the limit.

[scumdog]

yers, you do. It's just a question of how LONG after drinking. If there is a zero limit, be prepared to accept no driving if you have had a drink in the last WEEK. Drink, don't drive. Ever again.

Ahem, after 12 hours you won't get an alcohol reading with the present set-up...and possibly even less than 12 hours in most cases...

[Ixion]

Ahem, after 12 hours you won't get an alcohol reading with the present set-up...and possibly even less than 12 hours in most cases...

Yopu should have read further

The CBT test at present works round this by ignoring very low levels. It reports them as zero.But if the limit is set to zero it cannot do this. Zero is zero. It must be amended to report the very low level. Which will be an offience. By by licence

At present no-one is interested in anything less than 30 thingmillibudgies per centigumboot. So the gizmo can report those as 'no reading'. If the legal limit is zero the gizmo will have to be amended so it doesn't

[Tink]

As has been said before, lowering the limit will NOT change a bloody thing. We could make the limit Zero, but, you will still get the disqualified drink drivers, and the lifetime drink drivers, ruining other peoples lives. These oxygen thieves do not give a f@#k that they might hit and kill somebody, because the system will only hit them with the same wet bus ticket they have been hit with before. It is a sham that the punishments in this country do not fit the crimes for which they have been handed down. As an Officer of the law once told me, unfortunately the system we have is the only one we got, so we have to live with it. In my opnion, we need to make the penalties alot harsher so these .... are unable, and possibly unwilling, to reoffend.

But I am not holding my breath waiting for this to happen.

What B said!!!!!