Let’s stop playing with the problem of the serial drunk driver

He was a tall, thin man of dark complexion and aged about 28 years. He struggled to get out of the barber’s chair and over to his wheeled walking frame. In addition to his near-useless right leg, his left arm seemed to be in a fixed position. I assumed from his weedy appearance that some of his insides would not be working that well. The barber informed me that as the young man was walking home from soccer practice a few years earlier, a car jumped the gutter and struck him. A drunk with a record of multiple convictions drove it. The victim was unconscious for a year before facing a life of severe disadvantage.

I already knew that when a drunk driver is convicted, there is rarely room for him in prison. The court settles for a fine and loss of license for a definite period. Of the convicted, there are some who live entirely to satisfy their own needs and who view the punishment as it is handed down to them as a joke. They do not pay the fine and will drive un-licensed until there is another accident.

When I got home from the barber’s, I Googled for an update on the current drink-drive situation. What I discovered was astonishing. For example: A Perth man in 2009 was convicted of fatal drink-driving which killed. In 1996 he was convicted of drink-driving which killed. In 1983 he was convicted of drink-driving which killed. In addition he had several convictions for drink-driving which, by chance, did not injure others. 

Over 9,300 Australians a month lose their licence due to driving under the influence. Many more than that number arrive at their destination without being apprehended, and their drink-driving goes unrecorded. Out of the millions who drove today in this country, about 3500 were breath-tested. 

A driver under the influence might pass one car coming from the opposite direction every five seconds. In a 10-minute period that’s 120 cars. Let’s assume that the 9,300 charged are all driving intoxicated during the same 10-minute period that month. They would have passed 1,116,000 cars coming from the opposite direction. A drunk driver may never have damaged you, but you have come close to being damaged - even in just the last week.

Interlocking devices which link a breathalyser with the car’s ignition have been available to our legal system for over 10 years - and yet the drunks are still on the road in their thousands. Confiscating the drunk’s car cannot guarantee anything as many drink-related accidents involve cars not owned by the driver. This is playing with the problem. To put the drunk off the road, then we need to decide that we really want to put the drunk off the road. 

If incarceration is generally not possible (nor even desirable), then some other insurmountable barrier has to be placed between the serial drunk driver and alcohol.

By whatever means it takes

The evangelist Billy Graham’s father forced he and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they got sick. After this experience both children had a life-long aversion to beer. 

When I was a child I had a similar experience with repetitive vomiting following the raiding of an apricot tree. The scent of an apricot still brings up a slightly unpleasant sensation in me. After all these years I still have a file in my brain holding the memory of the stress of my reaction to the gorging. The memory sits there waiting to be triggered by the scent of an apricot.

In this article I wish to emphasise two undisputed facts: There may be rare exceptions, but we were not born with the neural network to crave alcohol. As with all drug addictions, the pattern of cells in the brain tissue of the drinker has to be put together gradually by the ingested alcohol molecule itself driving the process; and a network of cells can be built up in the same brain to associate alcohol with a very disturbing memory.

The most likely objection to Grahams’ father’s method of forced feeding will be that our society is bound by international as well as our own law to refrain from ‘cruel and unusual punishments’.

But is it punishment when the primary intention is not to make the person suffer for suffering’s sake? The primary intention is to gain an insurance against future damage to the driver and those who may be in his path. Is it cruel? This it certainly is. But it is only a small fraction as cruel as condemning a person who did not know what he was doing to spend over seven years in prison (which the man from Perth was condemned to serve).

Due to political failure we have a societal problem and not one that can be identified by pointing to individuals. The man from Perth should not have been punished at all. Rather, his capacity to drive while drunk should have been permanently removed after his second offence. Permanently!

Forced feeding under medical supervision creates a network of cells in the brain that will trigger a nauseous response to the taste, odour, and even the sight of the problem beverage. However in time the connections will weaken and the neural network will need reinforcing with repeated treatments. The fluid being administered needs to be laced with a nausea-causing substance to fast-track the desired outcome as a large quantity of alcohol ingested over a short period can lead to dangerously high blood alcohol levels causing, among other problems, respiratory failure. 

When I worked as a pathology technician testing blood for a safe transfusion, I would on a rare occasion and late at night need to enter the emergency department myself to deliver the urgently required cross-matched units of blood. An unconscious victim of a motor accident lying on a stretcher with battered head and awaiting x-rays to determine the extent of the mess inside them before the surgeon is called, is a very disturbing sight to anybody not used to such sights.

How do we get the general public to be convinced that there is a problem so grave that it must be solved by whatever means it takes? You can play your bit by supporting an activist group attempting to bring about change.

Then if your young child or grandchild was condemned to life in a wheelchair after a car with her as a passenger in it had been hit by a serial drunk, at least your conscience will be clear - even if the grief you will have to live with for the rest of your life will be almost unbearable.