49 Down.....

I heard on the radio this morning that Montana recently became the 49th state to outlaw open alcohol containers in moving vehicles (Mississippi being last in line).

Open container laws always kind of rub me the wrong way. Having an open container doesn’t mean you’ve been drinking and driving. I can understand it usually means a drunk driver, but that’s what breathalyzers are for.

But there are everyday scenarios where A does not follow to B so nicely. What about bringing home a half-finished bottle of wine you brought to a party? Or transporting cans to the store for recycling but one of them wasn’t quite empty? Should one get a ticket because he absent-mindedly forgot to finish his drink at a tailgate party? Or if friends are having a picnic and it suddenly starts raining, should they be punished because in their haste they brought their drinks into the car and then forgot about them?

I’m not a drinker myself so I could only imagine the myriad possibilities where an open container is justified. Is it really worth punishing everyone especially since we have the technology to better separate the legitimate lawbreakers from the victims of circumstance? Of course not.