Posted by Alcohol Kills, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Sep 2, 2012 at 6:49 am

There really should be a legal alternative to alcohol that won't cause so must risk to the public. The drunks killing people on the road, the violent altercations happening every weekend, the endless deaths and the endless pain happening in homes across the country.

There really should be a legal alternative to alcohol. It won't stop the suffering entirely, but it might reduce it.

Posted by lock them up, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Sep 2, 2012 at 8:09 am

So many drunk drivers endangering the innocent public means that penalties are not high enough. We need mandatory jail sentences after the first conviction.

Posted by More-Numbers--Please!, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 2, 2012 at 10:15 am

> So many drunk drivers endangering the innocent public

It would pay to have more information at our disposal than we typically get from a Weekly article. The following is 2010 stats for California, relative to alcohol-related accidents--

FACT SHEET/Driving-Under-The-Influence (DUI) Statistics 2010:

Web Link

Time-of-day when the accidents occurred is not provided. Neither do these stats offer any insight into the deaths/injuries of driver/passengers for the car causing the accident vs other parties involved in these accidents. The stats provided at this link suggest a goodly number of accidents involve motorcycles, reducing the probable number of "innocent" people involved.

It's a real shame we can't get decent reporting in this town.

Posted by Ashley_K, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Sep 3, 2012 at 2:31 am

"Alcohol Kills" - maybe I'm missing something, but what are you suggesting as a "legal alternative" to alcohol? Square dancing? Cow-tipping? Those don't kill people. Anything that alters mental state is deadly behind the wheel. What exactly are you suggesting?

In case you're not aware, alcohol IS legal. It's what someone does under it's influence that's not.