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Ban Smoking, Increase Drunk Driving

Since the Governor remains committed to the idea of banning smoking hither, tither and yon, it might be worth considering a very bad, unintended consequence (via Tyler Cowen):

A rigorous statistical examination has found that smoking bans increase drunken-driving fatalities. One might expect that a ban on smoking in bars would deter some people from showing up, thereby reducing the number of people driving home drunk. But jurisdictions with smoking bans often border jurisdictions without bans, and some bars may skirt the ban, so that smokers can bypass the ban with extra driving. There is also a large overlap between the smoker and alcoholic populations, which would exacerbate the danger from extra driving. The authors estimate that smoking bans increase fatal drunken-driving accidents by about 13 percent, or about 2.5 such accidents per year for a typical county.

A statewide ban might skirt some of the problem, except that it might make the Key Bridge more of a death trap than it is now. Almost sounds like a job for new and improved abusive driver fees (Dave Albo, call your office!).

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