Longtime readers know I’ve been warning for some time that we’ll soon see the day when every car in the country comes equipped with an ignition interlock device, requiring the owner to blow into a tube and pass an alcohol test before he can start the car. Estimates vary, but most I’ve read suggest the devices would add about $1,000 to $1,500 to the price of a car.

The idea found some fertile ground in New Mexico, where it passed the statehouse but not the senate, and it has been repeatedly introduced in New York by state Rep. Felix Ortiz, possibly the single biggest Nanny Statist in all of American government.

Until now, though, the idea hasn’t been taken seriously outside a core of hardcore neoprohibition types. Even MADD has in the past stopped well short of supporting mandatory installation on all cars, instead opting for the devices for repeat offenders.

No more. New MADD president (and public health revolving door veteran) Chuck Hurley now supports the idea. Not only that, but it has now entered the realm of “serious public discussion,” meriting a front page story in USA Today.

It’s not just that ideas as absurd as this one are slowly gaining acceptance, it’s that the lapse of time these Nanny State gimmicks must traverse to get from absurd to mainstream grows shorter by the day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 25th, 2006 at 6:18 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Alcohol, Nanny State, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.