Mothers Against Drinking

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, is out of control. Think they're only out there to stop drunk drivers? Not at all. Want to know MADD's official position on taxes?

MADD supports a prevention component to health care reform and supports a substantial increase in taxation on alcoholic beverages as a means of covering the cost to society caused by misuse of alcohol and as a means of supporting prevention programs including countermeasures to alcohol-impaired driving.

Okay, so they're tax & spend types, but other than that, they're OK, right? Hardly. Did you realize that MADD is lobbying for states to make Happy Hour illegal? Earlier closing hours in bars? How about some of their proposed rules for alcohol advertisements, which state no advertising shall:

• Feature actors, models or other talent or characters under the age of 30
• Be broadcast to audiences with less than 90% adult aged 21 and older viewership
• Feature on-camera consumption
• Use celebrities, music stars, athletes, animals, cartoon characters, or other language or images that appeal to youth
• Depict sports, rock concerts, or other events with strong appeal to youth
• Depict revelry or hint at the possibility of inebriation
• Portray drinking in association with sexual passion, promiscuity, or any other amorous activity as a consequence of or in association with alcohol consumption
• Disproportionately target ethnic minority communities

So just to be clear, the worst possible thing in the world to MADD would be a television ad showing a black music star having a good time with a beer in his hand, while talking to his girlfriend. If it were up to MADD, all alcohol advertisements would be black text on a white screen, stating simply: Please buy our product, just don't drink it.

MADD has become a Neo-Prohibitionist organization. Even the founder of MADD is on the record as stating "It has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned." Learn more at Neoprohibition.com, and try reading their excellent study on MADD. (PDF)

So what brings this rant on? The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is sending undercover officers into bars to look for drunk patrons, and issuing citations and making arrests. That's right, arresting people for being drunk in a bar! MADD is fully supportive of this campaign, with a spokesman saying "Can you imagine if TABC had not stopped those people from leaving the bar, how many more drunk drivers we might have had on the road?"

Earth to MADD -- the officers weren't stopping anyone from leaving the bar, they were stopping them in the bar. Some of those drunks may have been planning to call a cab, or had a designated driver. But MADD isn't about stopping drunk driving -- they're about stopping drinking.

For the record, Fairfax county tried this about a year ago. It was covered in the Washington Post as well as in the Neo-prohibition study linked above. Enforcement died after a Washington Post article about a designated driver (!) who was told she had to "prove" she was sober while in the bar. The article stirred up enough controversy to stop police from arresting folks in bars, at least temporarily.

Labels: alcohol, nanny state, personal freedoms

Permalink