EDITORIALS : Stereotype Broken
Posted on Tuesday, May 6, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/brog/Editorial/60060/
Here in the South, we are used to being near or at the bottom of government health rankings. There is an old joke in Arkansas that if it wasn’t for Mississippi, we would rank dead last in darn near everything.
But things are looking up in at least one category.
The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
A part of the survey tracked states with the highest drunkendriving rates.
The upper Midwest has the worst record. The survey says about 25 percent of Wisconsin drivers had driven under the influence in the past year. Wisconsin was followed by North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.
Maybe it’s those cold winter nights.
Utah, predictably, had the lowest rate of impaired driving. The majority of the state’s residents are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose tenets forbid alcohol. That state was the only one in the U. S. to clock in at under 10 percent.
One would expect Southern states to fair poorly in the survey. After all, the stereotype many have of the South is of beer-guzzling rednecks. But following Utah as the states with the lowest percentage of those driving under the influence were, in order, West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky and North Carolina, all with fewer than 11 percent. Guess someone needs to get a new stereotype. The researchers had a word of caution, though. “ Even in Utah, which reported the nation’s lowest rate, nearly one in 10 drivers report driving under the influence of alcohol within the past year, ” Dr. H. Wesley Clark of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said. “ So, even in states that have low consumption rates or low DUI rates, they too need to reflect on the approach they’re taking. We don’t want people to lull themselves into a false sense of security. ” True. But you can’t blame Arkansas and the other states that ranked well for giving themselves at least a small pat on the back.
— Texarkana Gazette