Alcohol

C. Jarrett Dieterle | 9.21.2024 7:00 AM

In the 1980s and '90s, a push to lower the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for getting behind the wheel took the country by storm. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was formed in 1980, and in 2000, President Bill Clinton signed into law the nationwide .08 BAC limit—conditioning the provision of federal highway funds on state compliance with the new limit.

Drunk driving rates are far lower today than several decades ago—falling by around half since the early 1980s, according to the National Institutes of Health. Even so, controversy over the legal limit has found renewed life, with a campaign to push for even further reductions in the permissible BAC level for driving.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) 2024 global status report on alcohol and substance use disorders garnered attention for noting that most countries have moved to a .05 or lower BAC legal limit. Media outlets like The New York Times and National Geographic were quick to run articles about America's seemingly outlier status when it came to drinking and driving.

Advocates for the lower limit cite laboratory and simulator research that purports to........

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