Friends of Bill Wilson? enter here

Merry Andrew<

Welcome to the A2k thread for AAs.

Babs, I am certain, will appreciate your "thank you."

For the weekend, though, she is offline, but will return shortly. She'll be happy to see you here

stupid lawsuit of the week
Merry Andrew welcome to the friends of BillW.

THIS IS THE STUPID LAWSUIT OF THE WEEK


17-yer-old Ricky Higgins is suing his high school
after he was kicked off the school basketball team for
driving drunk. He is suing for $100,000 and would like
to be reinstated on the team. His lawyers claim that
he is an alcoholic and his disabililty is covered under
the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Drunk driving charges got this alcoholic into the program, not $$$ in
the pocket.

Don't drink, ask for help and go to a meeting.

Seaglass

That is one of the silliest things I have ever heard. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect any person who has a disability from prosecution for violating the law. Alcoholism may be a disability, yes. But a blind person (surely a disability) would be prosecuted for trying to operate a motor vehicle without a license. The situation here is analogous, I think.

PS -- Thank you for the welcome, Seaglass.

Merry Andrew- Funny that you should say that. If I had a buck for every driver in my retirement town who could not see well, had no space perception, and no reflexes, I would be a rich woman.

Do you know what they did in Florida a few years ago? (Yes, Florida, and take the snicker off your face). They allowed people to renew their driver's licenses by mail, without taking an eye test. DUH!

Re. alcohol and prosecution, the Germany Criminal Code says

"Section 64 Placement in an Institution for Withdrawal Treatment
(1) If someone has a proclivity to consume alcoholic beverages or other intoxicants to excess and is convicted of an unlawful act which he committed while intoxicated or as a result of his proclivity, or is not convicted only because his lack of capacity to be adjudged guilty has been proved or may not be excluded, then the court shall order placement in an institution for withdrawal treatment if there is a danger that he will commit serious unlawful acts as a consequence of his proclivity.
(2) No order shall be issued if withdrawal treatment appears to be without prospects from the outset."

and
Section 323a Total Intoxication
(1) Whoever intentionally or negligently get intoxicated with alcoholic beverages or other intoxicants, shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine, if he commits an unlawful act while in this condition and may not be punished because of it because he lacked the capacity to be adjudged guilty due to the intoxication, or this cannot be excluded.
(2) The punishment may not be more severe than the punishment provided for the act which was committed while intoxicated.
(3) The act shall only be prosecuted upon complaint, with authorization or upon request for prosecution if the act committed while intoxicated may only be prosecuted upon complaint, with authorization, or upon request for prosecution. "

Re. 'disabled' we have a different view here:

"Section 20 Lack of Capacity to be Adjudged Guilty due to Emotional Disorders
Whoever upon commission of the act is incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of the act or acting in accordance with such appreciation due to a pathological emotional disorder, profound consciousness disorder, mental defect or any other serious emotional abnormality, acts without guilt.

Section 21 Diminished Capacity to be Adjudged Guilty
If the capacity of the perpetrator to appreciate the wrongfulness of the act or to act in accordance with such appreciation is substantially diminished upon commission of the act due to one of the reasons indicated in Section 20, then the punishment may be mitigated pursuant to Section 49 subsection (1). [= Section 49 Special Statutory Mitigating Circumstances ]"


I've worked a couple of years which persons 'from' the above sections - even the most clever of them with the most reputated lawyers never would have thought of the disability laws.

Some good stuff happening here, I love fellowship - it is #2 in my program!

friends of billw
NEWS FLASH

Premier of the Canadian province of British Columbia,
Gorden Campbell, 54, of Vancouver, BC was arrested
for drunk driving on the Hawaiian Island of Maui in Napili
returning home after a dinner party.

According to a Lahanina District Police Captain, Gordon
Campbell who owns a condo in West Maui said the arrest
was a serious mistake.

His court arraignment is supposely at the end of March,
this should be interesting. Does money talk???????

sg

Seaglass...interesting point of view.

WH..You live on the edge my friend. Under thse circumstances, if That been me in that woman's place, that would have been all the excuse I needed. Although it could be that you have a gift for sizing people up and would have used a different approach on me.

Driving while intoxicated
Friends of Bill W.<

Has anyone out there besides me ever been arrested for "driving while intoxicated?"

In my case, the arrest ended my last drunk. What about you?

williamhenry -- same here. Being arrested on a DUI at the age of 56 was the first step in making me see that I was out of control. 40 years of operating a motor vehicle, 40 years of irresponsible drinking. I lost my license for a year, some $600 in court costs, loss of face in the community etc. etc. It didn't make me stop drinking immediately. In typical alcoholic fashion, I blamed the whole thing on overzealous cops (I hadn't hit anybody, had I?) and just plain bad luck. But it got me into AA. And that was a good start.

DUI was the last event in my last drunk, my decision to turn my life over to my HP and finally listen was the end of that 25 year phase!

DUI was a regular part of my drinking career. I had managed to rack up 4 dui in ten years. My last was a slow moving head on with the wife of the Chief of Police in a small town. Till this day I do not know whose fault it was She was drunk too. I was taken to the police station and she was taken home. I saw the light, attended the state's drunk driving class. The other lady continued to drive drunk and was seriously injured several years later when she lost control of her car and drove it into a sea wall.

I shudder when I think about it. That I could have been responsible for hurting someone else, or be responsible for someone getting killed.

Better a seawall than a seaglass!

Yes, my DUI was almost 17 years ago, and I still have nightmares about my killing someone that fateful morning in a hit-and-run.

You see, when arrested, I was in a complete alcoholic blackout, had driven 63 miles from home and didn't remember driving an inch of it.

"If you want what we have, you must be willing to go to any lengths to get it."

WilliamHenry thank you for sharing your experience with me. That took a lot of courage and you are a power of example to all of us. I will pray for your higher power to lift the burden and give you the understanding that you were not responsible. That this terrible disease of alcoholism was responsible.

God Bless,

Sea Glass

"That this terrible disease of alcoholism was responsible" - but no-one actually forced me to start drinking and getting this disease.

Lost my license twice due to accidents (only my car was 'hurt' and some parked cras etc). However, this hadn't been the point for me to stop drinking.

Got DUI once at about 6:00 in the morning coming out of a blackout over 100 miles from home. The policeman told me he had been hearing of me coming for over an hour. I had been traveling in excess of 100 mph. Still took me about 5 years to more "experimenting".

No DUIs for me, just luck. No accidents either. But then I tried not to drive when I was drinking. But of course I did once in a while.

One of my favorite stories about DUIs is one I heard in San Diego from my home group secretary. As he was driving north in the south lanes of I-5 very drunk and was stopped by the CHP before he could do harm. The Court ordered him to AA and he stayed with the program and has over 20 years now. He always told newcomers the story of how his sponser made him track down the officer that stopped him that dreadful night and thank him for saving his life. He said it was the hardest thing he ever had to do but was grateful never-the-less

That is a good story Joanne.

Funny, I ran into the policeman who gave my husband his DUI a number of years after my husband got sober and I thanked the policeman. He was really pleased that I thanked him and he said he was so glad that he had made it into the program.

And I am grateful to Beech Hill Treatment Center which has one of the finest drunk driving programs in the United States.

I could get a gratitude meeting going today.

Shall we? I am grateful for: no more hangovers

. . . . next. . . . .

I'm grateful for that ahole of a cop who stopped me the last drunk - I was stopped by the cop, but it wasn't me he was after. I could see the lights two hills back and pulled over. About this time another car came around me going ninty to nothing. The cop pulled up behind me, I knew I was dead - just drank a case.

Cuffed me and gave me hell. I would later have nerve damage from the cuffing. It took over 2 years for that to heal. After I blew a 2.8 and he was transporting me to jail I asked him why he was acting like an ahole - being so mean to me. He said I had run a red light at a high rate of speed and almost hit him. Later, I would realize that was the car that passed me and he was wronging the wrong person.

This was a "God" thing. About two or three weeks earlier I had a long discussion with HP about changing my life. Of course, I was drunk then also. But, this was his way and 11+ years later I still haven't touched a drop.

Yes, I am grateful!

I am grateful that you all are here, sharing. And I'm grateful to have a meeting to go to tonight. And another tomorrow night. And my home group Friday night.