A state regulation allows alcohol vendors to serve patrons well beyond the legal limit for driving, according to a recent study by UNM's Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addiction.
Denise Wheeler, associate director of CASAA's Prevention, Education and Research Branch, spent three years in New Mexico bars interviewing wait staff and management and shadowing law enforcement officers.
She found that as many as 50 percent of people arrested for DWI had been drinking at a bar or restaurant before being arrested.
The regulation states that alcohol vendors can serve their patrons until their blood alcohol level is .14 - nearly twice the legal limit.
"It's generally not people who are sitting at home drinking who get stopped for DWI, but people who are 'over-served' at public establishments," Wheeler said.
Gary Tomada, director of New Mexico's Alcohol and Gaming Division, said police agencies called for the regulation several years ago. Its purpose is to help public establishments monitor the amount of alcohol a person consumes while at a public establishment and aid police agencies in lowering state DWIs.
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Tomada said a recent letter from Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White urged a re-evaluation of the regulation.
In the letter White pointed out a discrepancy between the amount of alcohol a person is allowed to consume and the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers - .08.
"Alcohol servers are well within the law to allow their patrons to consume enough alcohol to be nearly twice the legal limit once they get behind the wheel of a car," White wrote in the letter. "Considering the discrepancy between what we are telling servers is an acceptable limit and what we are attempting to enforce on the road ... it is no surprise that there are so many individuals who are driving intoxicated."
Tomada said he agrees with White that the regulation needs to be re-evaluated to lower the amount of alcohol bars can serve to an individual so it is closer to what is legally permitted for drivers.
Tomada said, though, that White was one of the original officers urging the regulation and that if it wasn't for the findings of CASAA's study, White wouldn't be calling for the change.
"This discrepancy is sending a bad message to the residents of New Mexico that since establishments allow them to drink well past the legal limit, they are not in danger of breaking any laws," said Linda Atkinson, director of the DWI Resource Center.
Atkinson said a recent study by the center found the average blood alcohol level of individuals charged with DWI in Bernalillo County is .15.
Wheeler said New Mexico mandated alcohol server training in 1993 with the intent of reducing the number of people who drive while intoxicated. However, according to her research, outright refusal to serve intoxicated patrons occurs in only 5 percent of all cases and some form of intervention occurs only 14 percent of the time.
In addition, with police short on staff for enforcement of the laws, few establishments have been cited in recent years for serving intoxicated people, Wheeler said.
Wheeler said the servers she interviewed mentioned several reasons for over-serving patrons, including fear of confrontation, losing their gratuity and lack of managerial support.
