It is a real-time experiment in governance, law enforcement and social engineering, conducted on real live people, people who have not signed any of the informed consent paperwork that would normally accompany the status of human guinea pig.
It could very well turn out that the first-in-the-nation move toward lowering the acceptable blood alcohol content from the old 0.08 percent to the new 0.05 percent will someday be seen as a good idea. People may wonder why it was every anything else.
Or we could come to the conclusion that the lower level is effectively, if not deliberately, a way to discourage even responsible drinking, to make criminals out of decent and harmless individuals, as well as a gratuitous kick in the pants to the state’s important tourism and hospitality industries, all without any measurable improvement in highway safety.