Oklahoma now ranks 25th in the number of alcohol related deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Last year we had 255 deaths, related to alcohol, and in 2002 we had 251.

Nationwide, there has been a 3% drop in alcohol related deaths. 17,524 in 2002, to 17,013 in 2003. Texas has the higher rate with a total of 1700, from last year.

I still see a big problem here . With all of the programs we have to keep drunken drivers off the road, one would think that alcohol related deaths would be down a lot more.

Is alcohol easier to get nowadays? Do we have a lot of underage drinking going on? If so, what kind of stiff penalties can we slap on people that buy alcohol for underage kids ?

We must be lax on drunken drivers, because you always hear about an accident, involving a drunken driver, who has been arrested numerous times and doesn't even have a license, yet they are still out on the streets. Lately, we have had instances where a drunken driver has actually plowed in to the back of a police car while the officer was writing a citation for somebody else.

Something is very wrong with our system when these drunken drivers are back on the roads, killing other people, because of their stupidity.