Sobering Thoughts

By Jennifer Harper

IN DECEMBER 2014 Scotland’s drink-drive limit was lowered. Two years on, official figures reveal that more people are committing drink-drive offences, the Scottish pub trade has been decimated, and dozens of jobs have been lost.

Nobody condones drink-driving. However, the lowering of the legal alcohol limit for motorists in Scotland from 80mg to 50mg in every 100ml of blood appears to have only hit home with the responsible people who would not have driven while over those limits anyway.

The head of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) claims that the Scottish Government tackled the issue of drink driving wrongly, resulting in innocent people paying for the crimes of the minority who do drink and drive. In addition, figures from Police Scotland show that more people have committed offences of ‘drink or drug driving’ over the past 12 months, compared with the previous year.