Mini bottles vs. free pour Was having a conversation with my sister yesterday concerning the new deal in South Carolina. “The new deal?” you might ask. Yes. The new deal. For as long as I can remember, South Carolina has been forced to use mini bottles (the kind you find on an airplane) of alcohol in their bars to make drinks for their patrons. Recently, the law that made the mini bottles prevalent in South Carolina has been changed, now allowing for “free pour”. My sister stated that she had voted for the change to the bigger bottles because she felt that this “new way” of mixing drinks would lower the drunk driving incidents in the great state of South Carolina. She’s a nurse, and therefore this is a valid concern of hers. I however, wholeheartedly disagreed with her, stating that it doesn’t matter how much alcohol the drink itself contains, it depends on how many drinks the individual consumes before deciding to get behind the wheel of a car. So I decided to look it up, using North Carolina for comparison (which is and has been a “free pour” state). In 2002 there were more drunk driving incidents in NC then there were in SC. So to sum up, more DUI situations in a “free pour” state vs. a “mini bottle” state. I only bring this up because there was no factual basis for her decision to vote in favor of “free pour”. If we can believe in statistics, we can believe that the DUI instances will increase in SC.
  ¶ 7:59 AM