I've long thought we should take a very firm stance on drunk driving. We try to in Texas. Because the stakes are so people often fight it in court ans sometimes win, when they shouldn't. Also, as Kim says above, many habitual offenders simply drive with their license suspended - and end up with multiple offenses. This is where we need to be very dilligent about enforcement; a second offense, or an offense while already under suspension should result in jail time. This is a hard one to accomplish; because we hate to put 'non-violent' criminals behind bars - and we have a strong wish to provide substance abuse or other rehabilitation programs - but when the offender has no interest in participating, we have to think about law enforcement and the good of the rest of society.

I have a music acquaintence in this category. He's been arrested twice recently for drunk driving, and possession of pot. As far as I know he's always got a buzz on. His first conviction suspended his license but allowed him to dive during weekday work hours so he cousl maintain his job. His second conviction suspended his license completely and placed him on probation. I don;t know if he was forced to go to AA or some other program - but he was placed on probation. Probabtion enforces sobriety validation including urine analysis for dope. My friend failed his tests every time - for several weeks in a row. The last time they told him a warrant would be issued for his arrest (I don;t know why they didn;t just arrest him on the spot) so, of course he stopped going to probation. By the way, he continued to drive illegally throughout this whole time. Sure enough, next time he was stopped, he was arrested and sentenced to 60 days in jail. He served 30 day and was released on probation. Once again, he failed his probation drug test every time ... so eventually he was retuned to jail for 90 days - this time he served 45 days and was released. No probation. I know he drives all the time now. I don;t know about his license situation.

Now this guy will swear to you that the state is nasty and stupid for putting him in jail because he smokes dope, don't they have better things to do then worry about him smoking a little reefer now and then - but I know the truth. He's a habitual drunk/stoned driver and if he won't get himself sober OR he won;t stop driving drunk; he needs to be in jail so he won't be killing you, me or our kids.


Anyway - back to my own situation. My back pain has pretty mild and I have not seen anyone. In fact I feel fine today. The insurance folks have been good, providing info as the case got rolling; the truck is in the shop and I have a replacement vehicle. I told them I was a musician and needed a large cargo area for some upcoming shows and they said "No problem. Go get what you need and we'll cover it!" WOW. I hope the whole process is this cooperative!