1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

French wine industry says it's ok to drink and drive

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by basso, Nov 15, 2003.

  1. basso

    basso Member
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2002
    Messages:
    33,393
    Likes Received:
    9,309
    Sounds like the government is getting stricter. I remember being in Paris a few years ago and seeing billboards loosly translating as "If you have more than 2-3 glasses of wine you might not want to drive..."

    oh, and I'm enjoying a nice Gewirtz from Pfalz as I write this...but I'm taking the subway tonight!
    --

    Wine industry urges drinking, driving

    French winemakers try to counter anti-drunk driving push

    ASSOCIATED PRESS

    PARIS, Nov. 15 — France’s wine industry wants drivers to know: It’s OK to have a drink for the road. Or three.

    THE $18 BILLION-A-YEAR wine industry is fighting back against a government campaign to discourage drunk driving. It claims the government is scaring people away from ordering a glass when they go out and points to a 15 percent drop in wine sales at restaurants.

    “People are so afraid of the police these days that they’re not drinking any wine at all,” Pascal Bobillier-Monnot, director of CNAOC national wine producers’ association, said Friday.

    Wine makers have always promoted moderate drinking to comply with the country’s blood-alcohol limit of .05. But they say the government is overreacting when it tells drivers that the safest way to stay out of trouble is not to drink at all.

    _“We believe the government has a duty of providing information which it has failed,” said Pascal Rousseaux, director of Afivin, an umbrella group for wine producers, distributors and retailers.

    Diners should know they can enjoy “two or three glasses” with their meal and still be fit to drive, Rousseaux said.

    Since taking office last year, the center-right government of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has made road safety a priority. Police have stepped up checks and toughened punishment.

    The government says road deaths fell more than 20 percent to under 5,000 in the first ten months of 2003 from the same period last year — still among the highest rates in Europe relative to population size.
    _ _ _ _
    FALLING WINE SALES

    Amid the tightened enforcement and government warnings, sales of wine in restaurants have also fallen by about 15 percent in just months, wine producers say.
    _ _ _ _
    “There’s no question about it. The enforcement effort and the government’s rhetoric have led to a drop in wine consumption in France,” Bobillier-Monnot said.
    _ _ _ _
    Industry groups are planning their own campaign to persuade motorists that abstaining isn’t necessarily the answer. Afivin plans a $350,000 initiative to distribute alcohol breath tests to restaurants across France starting next year.
    _ _ _
    By doing so, it hopes to convince those motorists who have stopped drinking altogether that they don’t need to be quite so worried.
    _ _ _ _
    Transport ministry spokeswoman Emmanuelle Dormond defended the government’s stance. _“In case of doubt the easiest way to be sure you don’t break the limit is to refrain from drinking,” she said.
     
  2. MacBeth

    MacBeth Member

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2002
    Messages:
    7,761
    Likes Received:
    2
    The fact is, the governments primary statement which they are opposing is still true: The BEST way to avoid drinking while drunk is not to drink while driving, period. After that it's a matter of subjectivity, which doesn't always mix well with alchohol. While it is true that for many 2 or 3 glasses with dinner is fine, for some it is not. Those for whom it is not are, by definition, drunk, and as such their objectivity and judgment are compromised. I managed bars for years, and I can tell you that the number one reaction of almost anyone who is drunk, when it is suggested that they don't drive, is to be certain they are fine.

    In the end, if the equation is loss of $ for wine industry= saving some lives, however few, I say excellent.
     
  3. a la rockets

    a la rockets Member

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2002
    Messages:
    857
    Likes Received:
    229
    Well here in France we get a lot of hard cold and implicite "don't drink and drive" commercials on TV and radio.
    2 drinks or more and you're out!(so they say)

    ALA
     
  4. Jeff

    Jeff Clutch Crew

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 1999
    Messages:
    22,412
    Likes Received:
    362
    We get the exact same thing in America.
     
  5. basso

    basso Member
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2002
    Messages:
    33,393
    Likes Received:
    9,309
    as we should. i can't count the times in high school/college when i'd had more than a few, uhmmm, glasses of wine, and thought, nay knew, i was fine, only to be amazed the next morning to find 'd made it home safely. while it's certaily a different thing to have a couple of glasses of wine over the course of a long meal, than to drink several pints/shots while rooting for the Rox in a bar, the only way to truely be safe is not to drive if you've been drinking- at all.
     
  6. GreenVegan76

    GreenVegan76 Member

    Joined:
    May 14, 2003
    Messages:
    3,336
    Likes Received:
    1
    Great point. It's a cliche, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
     
  7. Fatty FatBastard

    Joined:
    Jul 13, 2001
    Messages:
    15,916
    Likes Received:
    159
    What a bunch of crap. There is a problem with drinking and driving, but not nearly as bad as they make it.

    It's the popular political thing to do, and it's B.S.

    Facts are that you shouldn't drink and drive.
    You shouldn't talk on a cell phone and drive.
    You shouldn't be over the age of 70 and drive.
    You DEFINITELY shouldn't watch f-ing T.V. and drive.

    And yet, the only one that will cost you thousands of dollars and ruin your life is drinking while driving.

    And it is crap. I see nothing wrong with it, unless you do something behind the wheel that is wrong, and then you should pay the consequences. BUT ONLY THEN!

    It's a politically correct thing that has gone horribly, horribly awry, and it needs to stop. Period.
     

Share This Page