Ingrid - just what an older friend told me in 1963. He drove drunk, lost his driver's license and it had cost him about 8.000,- Deutsche Mark. A taxi would have cost him DM 8,-. I remembered this until the year 2000, when I was invited by friends to a small glass of wine, and the next one, and so on .... Mounting my car I didn't feel unfit. Driving my car I saw a red light too late and bumped into the car before me. Behid me stopped a patrol car.
A blood test resulted in 2 promille of alcohol in my blood. I lost my drivers license and protection by insurance. I cost me over DM 50.000.
Since then I support the movement for no alcohol when driving.

I am of an old family of innkeepers (first mentioned in 14 century), since the 18th century all brave students at our state university well known for the heavy drinking of its students. So I could stand a lot (more than a gallon every night, six nights a week) and went home without falling. I stopped that when married, and now I have promised my wife to disregard boozing. It makes her happier - and me, as I have noticed.

Being a little bit tipsy can make you a little bit merrier, there are some very fine absurd jokes coming to your mind, and it is a fine medium for social gatherings with a lot of singing and music (at the firemen's band our trombonists couldn't play well without one or two beers, and I played the bass better with some beers, too). But anybody drinking too much will be a nuisance in society, and his peers should tell him so. Sometimes it helps (with me it did).

The argument, that everybody knows his limits is a silly one. It isn't true and mostly used by people who don't know their limits.