Mothers Against Drunk Driving, to the dismay of many including its founder, has strayed from its original purpose of reducing drunk driving and is now trying to outlaw drinking.

Courtesy of the LP Blog:

Since the founding of Mothers Against Drunk Driving 25 years ago, drunk driving deaths have decreased by 35 percent. MADD’s public advocacy campaigns have stigmatized drunk drivers and increased awareness of using a designated driver. MADD has been so successful, the drunk-driving problem has been reduced to a small minority of hard-core alcoholics.

Chuck Hurley, a spokesman for the National Safety Council, explained, “We’ve already deterred virtually all of the social drinkers. We’re now down to the hard core of people who drink and drive in spite of public scorn.”

Instead of supporting initiatives to apprehend hard-core repeat drunk driving offenders MADD has waged war against social drinkers. It has veered off from its original mission and now wants to discourage the consumption of alcohol in general or also known as “neo-prohibition.”

. . .

MADD has strayed so far off from its original mission, even its founder, Candy Lightner is questioning the organization’s new extreme direction. She commented, “I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving.” Lightner added, “It has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned.”

MADD is part of a larger neo-prohibitionist movement to restrict access to alcohol. This movement seeks to place alcohol in the same category as cigarettes. Many states have placed restrictions on banned “happy hour” drinking specials which are defined as “reduced price or multiple drink alcohol sales practices and promotions that encourage excessive alcohol consumption.”

The neo-prohibitionist movement has employed many of the same tactics as the anti-smoking movement. Each movement does not call for an outright ban of either cigarettes or alcohol, which would spark a public outcry instead they look to push various laws to restrict the use as much as possible. Groups like MADD have the goal of imposing a nanny state on the drinking public. — LP Blog

Read the whole post, as there is much more interesting information there.