Dear Editor,
A strange advertisement appeared in the weekend papers with “Mek 2 yuh limit”, stating that after two drinks you become a killing machine. The Coat of Arms is very tiny on the poster. Countries around the world have invested in determining what should be the legal and safe blood alcohol limit. There is no agreement; different countries and states vary. According to the National Health Services Choices website of the United Kingdom (http://nhs.uk) “The safest option is not to drink any alcohol at all if you plan to drive. Even a small amount of alcohol can affect your ability to drive, and there’s no safe way to tell whether you’re within the legal limit.”
The Government of New South Wales, Australia, notes on their website after explaining blood alcohol limits, “We recommend that you don’t drink any alcohol if you plan to drive. Alcohol affects different people in different ways and attempting to guess your blood alcohol concentration is difficult and inaccurate.”
The Government of Guyana should not be pushing any campaign on limiting drinks.
The message should be clear, ‘Don’t drink and drive’. The message in our culture should be a charge, ‘Don’t drink’. The programmes around the message should be about encouraging those who thrive on the creation of killing machines to accept some responsibility for ensuring that their customers and promoters help to reverse the alcohol fuelled carnage in Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
