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Science Daily: Zero tolerance, zero effect, says expert

(Sam Houston State University economist Darren) Grant also compared the blood alcohol distributions of involved drivers in the two years before zero tolerance laws were established in each state, and again in the two years after. The two distributions were also virtually identical.

"That's a sign that this law is essentially inert; if it's affecting the amount of drinking that people do, these distributions should look different," he said. Grant's colleague at Sam Houston State and fellow economist, Donald Freeman, completed a similar study in 2007 that yielded similar results regarding a related law that lowered the allowable blood alcohol limit for adult drivers. That paper was published in the journal Contemporary Economic Policy.

I'm always wary of laws and regulations which attempt to substitute draconian rules for common sense. Especially when they have absolutist names like "zero tolerance."

They're in that class of ideas that sound really good in the abstract, but don't do what their proponents claim they do when you try to actually put them into operation.

Sort of like "universal health care" or the "war on drugs," to name two examples.

Let's think out there, people.