Reader: mad about MADD's stance on alcohol consumption - Letters - Letter to the Editor

Editor, NRN:

Nation's Restaurant News should know better than to be taken in by Mothers Against Drunk Driving's rhetoric, "Industry remains sober in wake of alcohol tragedies," Sept. 22, page 134. While MADD may claim that it is not an anti-alcohol organization, its actions prove otherwise. MADD is a rabid supporter of roadblocks--not to reduce drunk driving, but to get people to "drink less," according to its Web site. And frightening responsible adults at roadblocks is just the first step. The organization wants anyone who drinks before driving to be arrested.

"We're to the point where almost everyone knows that he or she shouldn't drink and drive.... The most effective way to deal with them is to arrest them," according to a MADD representative who was quoted by The Washington Post.

Even Candace Lightner, MADD's founder, acknowledges that MADD has abandoned

its original mission for a prohibitionist crusade: "[MADD] has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted of envisioned. I didn't start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving."

Make no mistake: MADD wants responsible adults who drink arrested when they leave our restaurants. That's not a campaign against drunk driving--it's a campaign against drinking.

John Doyle

executive director

The American Beverage Institute

Washington, D.C.

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