A current project of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving merits attention and serious consideration.

Recently, a spokeswoman for MADD said she is tired of hearing justification of drunken driving as the result of a disease, presumably alcoholism. She, and colleagues, believe that getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle while impaired by one substance or another is a criminal act and should be dealt with as such.

Defense attorneys contend that alcohol can become a disease and that its victims need advice, counseling and education more than they need jail time and fines. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. Many people who drive drunk, or otherwise impaired, are not clinical alcoholics. More often than not they are someone who has imbibed or indulged to excess and should not be trying to maneuver a vehicle.

Anyone who causes an accident while using a cell phone or some messaging device is guilty of criminal negligence, at best. That person should be suitably charged and if injuries or death occur, then they have committed a criminal act, the least of which might be manslaughter. What’s the difference between killing someone while text messaging and killing someone under the influence of alcohol?

When does “alcoholism” kick in and where is the dividing line for those who are not so “diseased”? Why be charitable in either case? Driving while legally drunk is an action that must be dealt with upfront as a criminal act, the same as threatening someone with a weapon. It is difficult to find a bigger weapon than a car or truck.

The MADD people are on target. Time and again, families have had members maimed or killed by drunken drivers, then have seen the perpetrators get off with “medical” excuses, only to do the same thing later, sometimes repeatedly. People who drink and drive need to have it hammered home that what they are doing is a criminal act and that it will be handled as such in courts. Enough of the softcore rehabilitation process that too often allows drunken drivers to endanger the public again!

Drunken driving is a criminal act, and penalties for the first offense need to be stiff enough to cut down on recidivism.