| Sanford OKs holiday liquor sales as police crack
down CLEARWATER - South Carolina has a schizophrenic relationship with alcohol. To help combat the worst drunken-driving fatality rate in the nation and stave off a federal threat to cut off highway money, the South Carolina Legislature recently reduced the blood-alcohol threshold from .10 percent to .08 percent. But its bars and restaurants still serve the stiffest cocktail in the nation, thanks to a 1974 amendment to the state constitution that requires the alcohol in mixed drinks to come from 1.7-ounce minibottles - more than the ounce or so poured from a bartender's hand. To crack down on drunken holiday drivers, the South Carolina Department of Public Safety also has launched a Sober Or Slammer campaign and set up checkpoints manned by state troopers and local law enforcement officers. However, Gov. Mark Sanford, saddled with a sour economy and a crisis in state tax revenue, decided to go against tradition and allow liquor stores across the state to open Friday. Customer Ron Rowland, 43, a boiler operator at the Avondale textile mill in Graniteville, picked up a half-gallon of Heaven Hill bourbon at Barrineau's Package Shop, a small store on the Jefferson Davis Highway. Mr. Rowland said he didn't see a clash between the state's crackdown on drunken drivers on the same holiday weekend the governor decided to allow holiday liquor sales. "I don't think it's a contradiction," said Mr. Rowland, a North Augusta resident. "It all boils down to maturity and responsibility. It's like that old gun argument - it ain't the gun that kills people, it's the person pulling the trigger." Two years ago, Mr. Rowland said his stepmother, Murna Harris, her mother and her daughter were killed in a wreck on Peach Orchard Road in south Augusta by a man driving a company truck while drinking. But he and store owner Kenny Barrineau reject any suggestion that making it easier to buy alcohol makes it easier to drive while drunk. "I appreciate the freedom I have to make choices, but if my choice infringes on this gentleman here or that gentleman there, it's not a freedom," said Mr. Barrineau, 49, pointing at employee Frank Garcia and Mr. Rowland. "You don't have a freedom to drive drunk." But that's a point that's still not getting across to many of the state's drivers. "I think people think it's still socially acceptable to drink and drive during the holidays," said State Transportation Officer C.D. Kyzer, a member of the Public Safety Department's Strategic Alcohol and Radar Unit. "They get together with friends, the liquor flows and then they drive." DRUNKEN DRIVING Though South Carolina has the worst drunken-driving fatality rate in the nation, Gov. Mark Sanford decided to let liquor stores stay open on the Fourth of July. Last year, 22 people died during the 102-hour Fourth of July holiday weekend. Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1394.
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