Show Me My Buzz

Good news + good technology = better news

Here’s the first piece of good news: statistics from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration show that our state of Missouri ranks in the bottom ten in nearly all categories regarding drug and alcohol use.

One hopes that is because we have tried diligently to keep our rate low by educating our kids and young adults against the use of alcohol and drugs. One hopes that the increased police activity and stiffer sentences have caused at least a few people to step back and say, “Hey, that’s not for me – I have bigger plans for my life.”

One hopes that it is not just because the rates have gone up so much higher in all of the other 40 states of our country that we were mercifully left behind on this one. Let’s keep up the good work that’s being done and keep at it because there are no laurels to rest on when there are still drunks driving and pills popping. It’s time that we help young people, especially, to have a goal so that they will want to be at their best, not their worst.

The second piece of good news is for people who do drink and who are willing to be careful about whether they should drive or not – hey, shouldn’t that be everybody?
The Missouri transportation officials have launched a new smartphone application that will help people to calculate their estimated blood-alcohol concentration.

It’s called “Show Me My Buzz” and it is free.

Now before you go imagining that you will be spitting on the screen of your phone or poking yourself for a drop of blood, it’s not quite that advanced. It’s handy knowledge and a little test which, if answered accurately, will let a person know what his/her level is. The drinker enters information as to gender and number of drinks consumed and how long he or she has been drinking that day. The smartphone app will then estimate what the blood-alcohol concentration probably is. The application will also provide the phone number for a local cab company just by tapping the screen.

Hopefully this will get people thinking and talking about what they are consuming and their ability or lack of ability to drive safely.