This thread is just a stick to beat the guy with if you don't like him or his TV shows.
You wouldn't be saying that had he drove into your car and injured your daughter
I don't condone what he's done but he's (apparently) an addict and made an absolutely stupid mistake granted, but it's like he's public enemy No.1. He'll be punished like anyone else in the same position - a ban and a fine that won't affect him in the slightest. He'll be back on telly before the end of the year.
I find debates like this quite interesting because all it proves is that the "do-gooders" have won the argument about drink driving. When the laws were originally brought in people were up in arms about how it was a limit on their freedom to have a few and then drive home. (I remember seeing a black and white interview with a guy in a pub. He was complaining that he can no-longer have his 3 or 4 pints and his whiskey chaser and then drive home.)
Clearly that argument has been won hands down. As has the seatbelt and helmet arguments of the past. Maybe one day people will see that do-gooders actually do good.
...and this is where the punishment is wrong. A ban won't bother him but had he been a taxi driver (for instance) it'd end his career.
What punishment do you want then? Removal of a limb? Death by stoning? Bowel removal?
Why has he, I’ve yet to read any confirmed assessment of him having such mental problems, besides if that were the case why did he return / why was he allowed to return to doing tv after his last visit to rehab? Surely he should have kept well clear and better still retired, not as though he couldn’t afford to call it a day.
He has had an addiction to pain killers from an injury to his knee that wasn't healing. As with any addiction, you gradually take more to get by, day by day, until you just cannot function without them. Any addiction is a mental health problem of some kind. The fact this has been partnered with the end of his marriage after years of trying, unsuccessfully, to have children, has all blown up into some kind of self combusting nightmare.
Him and Dec have their own production company and the fact is they enjoy the buzz of performing to live audiences - always have. Yes, they could retire or go and hide behind the company name but it wouldn't fulfil their love of performance.
If, as Ricey says, he's been charged formally now then they will really have to re-evaluate where they go from here.
He has had an addiction to pain killers from an injury to his knee that wasn't healing. As with any addiction, you gradually take more to get by, day by day, until you just cannot function without them. Any addiction is a mental health problem of some kind. The fact this has been partnered with the end of his marriage after years of trying, unsuccessfully, to have children, has all blown up into some kind of self combusting nightmare.
Him and Dec have their own production company and the fact is they enjoy the buzz of performing to live audiences - always have. Yes, they could retire or go and hide behind the company name but it wouldn't fulfil their love of performance.
If, as Ricey says, he's been charged formally now then they will really have to re-evaluate where they go from here.
He has had an addiction to pain killers from an injury to his knee that wasn't healing. As with any addiction, you gradually take more to get by, day by day, until you just cannot function without them. Any addiction is a mental health problem of some kind. The fact this has been partnered with the end of his marriage after years of trying, unsuccessfully, to have children, has all blown up into some kind of self combusting nightmare.
Of course, whilst you're explaining how an addiction to pain killers can start and escalate, you haven't explained how that progressed to alcohol.
I imagine that with any drug, the effects seem to lessen over time and an addict would look for something harder to numb themselves.
I assume you're right, but the debate here is around OBL having sympathy for how this guy ended up driving whilst drunk, using his addiction to pain killers (and his mental health issues which we don't even know to be true) as an explanation. Driving after having taken pain killers wouldn't have been an issue. The escalation is something he should really have dealt with before it became an issue.
On a separate note, have you not just undermined your argument for legalising cannabis? :winking:
Not at all. People take cannabis for enjoyment, not as an escape. Not really something you can argue with alcohol.