Drunk dad lets boy, 11, drive car

Florence County, SC: A local man has been arrested on charges he allowed his 11-year-old son to drive the family car while the father was drunk in the passenger seat, sheriff’s Capt. Todd Tucker said.

The boy’s 9- and 4-year-old siblings were also in the car Friday morning, Tucker said. A deputy dropping his child off at Coward Elementary School said he saw the 11-year-old boy driving the car. The boy’s father, Joddy Deam Morris, was drunk in the vehicle, Tucker said. Source.

South Carolina bill would require treatment for all DUI offenses

Durham, S.C.: Convicted drunken drivers would have to participate in alcohol treatment programs — even if they didn’t want their driver’s licenses reinstated — under a bill introduced Tuesday that would rewrite the state’s DUI laws.

The mandated treatment is needed because many convicted offenders choose to drive on suspended licenses rather than pay to go through treatment programs to get their licenses back, supporters say.

Such drivers conservatively total in the thousands annually, said Lee Dutton, spokesman for the S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services. Source.

No mention so far in the coverage of this controversial bill whether the mandated treatment will be secular, or include a secular option, as required by federal appellate decisions.

Patients feel OK discussing alcoholism with dentist

More than ninety per cent of dental patients feel OK discussing their drinking with their dentist, a survey by researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina has found.

Authors of the study urged dentists to raise the subject with patients and to advise drinking less or quitting if excessive drinking were found.

The fact that heavy drinking causes cancer of the larynx gives dentists grounds to raise the subject.

This kind of "brief intervention" by doctors has proved to be a highly effective motivator to get people to cut down or stop drinking. Details.

He was looking for Lindsay Lohan

IRMO, S.C.: Two police officers were controlling traffic at a church at 7:56 p.m. Thursday when someone told them a man who was drunk was wandering around the building. The man claimed he was there for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. The officers tried to help him, but he became loud and belligerent and pulled a folding knife out of his pocket. He was disarmed and taken into custody. Source.

Brief interventions effective for alcohol abusers

Doctors and nurses should screen and counsel patients for alcohol abuse during routine visits, a doctor-led advocacy group recommended in a recent report.

Dr. Thomas Esposito, co-chairperson of End Needless Deaths on Our Roadways (END), [web site] said studies have determined that 5- to 15-minute counseling sessions have proven effective in decreasing consumption among at-risk drinkers.

The recommendation is part of an annual report ranking the deadliest states of the union in terms of drunk driving. Washington D.C. and Hawaii topped the list this year. Connecticut, Illinois, Montana, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, North Dakota, and Washington also made the list of the bloodiest states. Details.