Stop!

Don’t order that glass of wine with dinner.

This is the type of anxiety many Iowans will feel every time they bring a drop of alcohol to their lips if Gov. Tom Vilsack’s proposal to lower the blood-alcohol level from .10 to .08 is passed.

A proposal that has been spiked by state legislators before seems to be back on the agenda by Iowa’s new governor.

Vilsack cries the .02 difference in the blood-alcohol level would save lives.

Why wouldn’t state legislators who serve their constituents by passing laws to squelch their safety fears want to lower the blood-alcohol level?

The reason is because the minute difference would not save lives.

And according to local law officials, lowering the blood-alcohol level also is not likely to increase OWI arrests.

If lowering the blood alcohol level wouldn’t increase arrests, how would it save lives?

In most drunken driving cases reported in the media when there is injury or damage, the driver tests well over the legal limit.

By lowering the blood-alcohol level, Vilsack needs to consider who he is trying to crack the whip on — the person who goes out to the bar every Friday night and drinks 10 beers and two shots or the person who has a wine cooler while visiting friends.

Surprisingly, Republican leaders took a stand against Vilsack’s somewhat conservative proposal.

Most demanded that the state has some of the strictest drunken driving laws in the nation.

If Vilsack’s goal was to address the problem of OWI arrests and drunken driving, he should have taken a more proactive approach.

The topic of alcohol abuse on college campuses is addressed all the time.

Universities also try to curve the problem by establishing substance abuse prevention programs.

Most of the individuals caught drinking and driving for the first time have done it many times before.

Substance abuse programs need to begin in junior high and high schools when young adults start developing drinking habits.

Substance abuse education is the answer to lowering OWI arrests and saving lives, not lowering the blood-alcohol level.

What may have seemed like a grand idea to build support from the citizens of Iowa by Vilsack turned out to be a frivolous attempt to crack the whip.