[sweetjazz]

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1) just add the speeding ticket..

2) just the speeding ticket, whatever it may be

3) with the exception of excessive speeds, speeding can be much more easily reasoned as not dangerous (and possibly true) and is widely accepted as not very dangerous, whereas drugs are widely accepted as dangerous.

---speeding penalties don't matter unless they are widely enforced, which they won't be. Hey, if there were some conspiracy on a highway you could get everyone going 100 mph without a problem.

everyone knows that the real speed limit is to not go visibly faster than everyone around you when a cop could be watching.

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Speeding both increases the frequency of accidents by reducing the time we have for our reflexes to act in those rare instances where something unusual is happenning that could lead to an accident, but accidents are also much more likely to be fatal as speeds go up (due to the increased likelihood of a high impact collision).

I do agree that there is a perception that speeding is not dangerous and drugs are very dangerous, but is that a reflection of actual facts? Or is it because most people who think that way speed regularly (and now conveniently have a rationalization for their behavior), but don't use drugs.

I think it is clear that speeding is much more dangerous than recreational drug use. There are other aspects of drugs than recreational use, and I don't want to get sidetracked about how dangerous drugs are.

The point is that speeding IS dangerous and it IS illegal, but people rarely have the same anger over it as a crime as they do other crimes, such as drug use. People would never go for a "3 strikes" law that gave mandatory life imprisonment to every caught speeding three times. Is there a good reason behind that, or is it simply due to the fact that there is some chance such a law could be applied to them or somebody they know and love?

As a side note, there are ways that speeding laws could be enforced better. They typically involve issues with privacy rights and I am not sure they are necessarily a good idea. My only point is that while it is certainly true that speeding laws are not enforced very seriously, they certainly could be in principle.