Marijuana.com

Cassius

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/8034788/detail.html

IRVING, Texas -- The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has taken its fight against drunken driving to a new level. TABC agents, along with Irving police, targeted 36 bars and clubs Friday, arresting some allegedly intoxicated patrons before they departed the businesses.

The officers and agents also kept watch on bartenders who might have over-served patrons.

Agents arrested 30 people Friday night. Most of the suspects now face charges of public intoxication.

The agents and Irving police officers traveled from bar to bar and worked undercover, according to an NBC 5 report.


The report also said that some agents shared tables with suspected drunken patrons. Some patrons were subjected to field sobriety tests inside bars.

Agents and officers said the operation represented an effort to reduce drunken driving.

Sgt. Chris Hamilton, of the TABC, said some inebriated bar patrons "end up killing themselves or someone else" after departing the businesses.

Is that messed up or what? So, just to make sure I have this straight: Say I lived in Texas, and me and 3 buddies decide to go out and have some fun, and one of them is the designated driver. I decide I want to get drunk, what the hey I'm not driving right? Not a danger to anyone. I don't even have my keys or a car with me. But I can be arrested, while STILL IN THE BAR?

Here's the Texas statute on it:

I guess since we MAY endanger someone, we've committed an offense? Is it just me, or is that a very dangerous precedent to set? Minority Report comes to mind...

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{ Cassius, Your Humble Narrator }
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MrIMStoned

This promted me to read my own criminal code to see if that were true of where I live. I didn't find anything but I did come across this...

(2) Every one commits an offence who knowingly, without lawful justification or excuse,
(d) advertises or publishes an advertisement of any means, instructions,
medicine, drug or article intended or represented as a method for restoring sexual virility or curing venereal diseases or diseases of the generative organs.

I guess were not allowed to have Viagra commercials in Canada. Also part (c) of that prohibits pro-abortion literature. Funny how both those things are legal but advertising of them is still illegal.

Although no one is enforcing these laws like the cops in texas.

edit: I was reading further and it seems that if you had the interest of the public good in mind, that's not an offence. So if we believe Viagra serves the public good it is not illegal to advertise there product.

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"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then?"

chronic2

I hate to be a wet blanket here but I can see the cops point. If I was looking to bust people for alcohol offenses where would I go to find such law breakers? Well, you don't have to be Columbo to know that there are a lot of people using and abusing alcohol at the area bars. Anyone who gets in their cars and drives away is a suspect in a possible DUI investigation.
Now, lets all come together on this, folks. Is druck driving a serious offence? Should the police be doing everything possible to stop it?
Answers to these questions, other than "the cops suck", would be appreciated.

Toking Jedi

The problem with this is that they are doing the tests in the bars themselves. I find a bar to be a private institution, not a public area. Sure it's "in public", but it's a private establishment and not city property. However, once they get outside, they are liable to be arrested. That's how it is in NYC, anyway. Texas is just full of crazies.... including the police, apparently.

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Buzzby

As long as there are public intoxication laws on the books, the LEOs are just doing their jobs. I feel the same way about the marijuana laws. Getting LEOs to ignore their duty is neither likely nor desirable. If you don't like the public intoxication laws you should lobby to change them, not complain about their being enforced.

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chronic2

And that ain't going to happen. MADD (mothers against drunk driving), SADD (students against drunk driving) and CADD (clowns against drunk driving) would terrorize the politician that even thought about changing the laws on a more liberal note.

Toking Jedi

Ok, but my problem with enforcement is when I feel the LEOs are going too far. I have no problem with them doing their jobs, arresting people for public intoxication and DUIs, but going into drinking establishments and arresting people there? Personally, I would feel violated if an agent sat down in my booth and wished to test my intoxication level. Sure, I'd have nothing to hide because I drink moderately anyway, and don't get smashed, but still. I feel there is a distinction between public intoxication and being drunk at a bar. When you're too drunk at a bar, it's the bartender's responsibility.

Of course, I can see why they would want to do this. There are those bartenders who do give drinks out to people who are already smashed, and obviously so, because they just want the money. These people are breaking the law, at least they would be in NYC, and so need to be dealt with. It's a two-sided coin. I'm ambivolent, yet lean towards not wanting cops in bars.

Buzzby

Being drunk in a place accessible to the public is "public intoxication". I like to go to a bar, have a drink or two, and talk with my friends. That pleasant activity was frequently ruined by people who drink too much and become loud, obnoxious, stupid, belligerent, and violent. There is no reason other people, people who are just trying to have fun, should be subjected to that kind of crap.

Fortunately, there are all kinds of bars with all kinds of clientele. I've found a few "boring" bars that suit my low-key preferences. Maybe there should be bars that lock you in until you're sober enough to be on the street.

MrIMStoned

The problem is I could blow well over the limit and not be a loud obnoxious moron or a threat to others. But if the law says I'm drunk, I'm drunk I guess.

Murdock

Well said, agree 100%. If people get intoxicated in public, they should EXPECT to be Arrested and be prepared to be taken downtown.