Prohibition not working again

Prohibition doesn’t work when people are addicted to, love or even like the object being prohibited.

Prohibition didn’t work in this country regarding alcohol. People still drank, whether in speakeasies, through home-brewed concoctions or via various other methods.

We had created a nation of criminals. So we got rid of alcohol prohibition.

Prohibition didn’t work with marijuana, either. Many people were going to smoke it even though it was illegal.

First we did the medical marijuana thing, allegedly as a way to help people suffering from glaucoma, epilepsy and such and needing the legitimate relief marijuana could provide, but that quickly devolved into every weedhead getting a medical marijuana card for “anxiety,” “insomnia” or “neck pain.” Now states around the country are legalizing recreational use of marijuana, making millions of herbivores around the country ecstatic.

The prohibition of the use of cell phones while driving isn’t working, either. Millions of people are terribly addicted to their cell phones. They can barely put down their phones for seconds. They can’t not respond when they hear a bloop alerting that an Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook or text message has arrived.

Look around while you drive. I would estimate 30 to 35 percent of drivers are either reading, typing or talking on their cell phones. It may be even higher than that in the Imperial Valley, where many people pay little heed to traffic laws (such as stopping at red lights.)

What we’re doing with the prohibition of using cell phones while driving is again creating a nation of criminals, and many of those criminals flout the law right in front of their children.

I narrowly missed a collision last week when a driver was talking so enthusiastically on her cell phone that she ran a stop sign. The eyes of an adolescent girl in the passenger seat — I assume the driver’s daughter — bulged in terror as my car nearly hit the car she was in, right where she was sitting. The other driver was not even concerned enough about the near accident to quit yakking on her phone for a millisecond.

So what message was the woman sending to her daughter about obeying laws? And how effective will the woman be when, in a few years, she may have to talk the girl about not picking and choosing which laws to obey?

Will the lifting of the law prohibiting cell-phone use while driving make driving more dangerous? Of course it will. The repeal of laws prohibiting the possession and use of alcohol and marijuana made driving more dangerous, but we took those actions because we as a society had come to the realization that people weren’t not going to stop drinking alcohol and smoking weed.

We’re in the same situation now with cell phones and driving. It’s obvious people would rather take the risk of getting injured or killed, and injuring and killing others, including their loved ones, than get off their cell phones.

So let’s legalize it. Yes, more people will die and be maimed, but people will be able to keep in more constant touch with their friends and families about stuff, so that’s good, too, right?

Frankly, law enforcement efforts to get people to hang up when they drive have failed. People would rather take the chance of paying a fine rather than not finding out what Janice is texting about Tony’s party next week. It seems that some officers have given up on citing cell-phone-using drivers, knowing if they did that’s all they would ever do.

This is one more case where prohibition hasn’t worked. People simply love their cell phones too much to not be on their phones while driving.

And if that means they love their cell phones more than life itself, so be it.