Quote:
Originally Posted by Taf
And if its deadly enough in their hands, it'll be just as deadly in anybody's hand.
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So are plenty of things that are a lot less emotive, and of varying degrees of utility. I could go up to my local fishing tackle shop right now, and buy a crossbow which could easily kill someone. Being as I don't look like I'm under 18, the shopkeeper's only legal responsibility is to charge me 5p for the carrier bag.
In the legal systems of the UK there is a long-established precedent for regulating things only so far as to balance safety against wider public freedom. With regards to a Scandinavian-style zero alcohol limit, it may sound like being tough on the causes of road death, but once you go beyond the very low limit now being set in Scotland, how effective is it, when weighed up against the burden placed on the individual to consider exactly how long ago they had that drink, and whether they may still have a trace of alcohol in their system?
Scandinavian countries have a peculiar relationship with alcohol. I wonder how far their laws are a reflection of their culture, and how far they are based on hard proof that the additional burden on the individual is justified by the wider benefit to society.