Wasted Potential

Bethany Denman was a promising student. She was a member of the honor roll and planned to be a physician. Some say that her recent 15 year sentence for killing Amy Meron, a local piano teacher and mother, while driving at .30 blood alcohol content is too harsh, and that it will prevent her from being a full contributing member of society. The truth is that she already made choices that prevented her from reaching her full potential.

One poor choice was to abuse alcohol, pills, and marijuana. Even with all of her education, her brain was not fully formed. It was still developing its capacity to retain knowledge and use judgment. Regardless of whether or not our laws see her as an adult, her brain was not fully developed; and thanks to the abuse of alcohol and drugs it will never be the fully functioning tool that it could have been.

Her drinking was nearing a lethal dose even without the pills and marijuana. She would have been experiencing near total loss of motor functions, inability to stand or walk, vomiting, incontinence, and potential unconsciousness. By drinking at those levels while abusing drugs she was risking serious damage to her body potentially resulting in liver, pancreas, and bone damage; not to mention cancer and heart disease.

Denman’s attorney argued that “throwing her in jail for 20 years . . .  is not going to stop the alcoholic that’s drinking right now and ready to get in their car.” He argued that as an honors student and an applicant to medical school she “isn't the type of careless sociopath one might expect on a Mothers Against Drunk Driving billboard.”  To this perspective I must argue that the average drunk driver is not an alcoholic. Offenders are not sociopaths; they do not necessarily have poor education or low socioeconomic status. While I agree that Denman’s sentence will do little to deter future drunk drivers, we cannot allow the problem to be so undervalued as to warrant probation. The victims of this crime were not treated differently because of their own background or education, and perpetrators of this crime should not be given more credit for their standing in the community.

 In order to prevent future fatalities and wasted potential we must not rely on enforcement alone. This problem is community wide and therefore requires a community response. Everyone should be involved in some way or another whether it is educating your kids on the dangers of alcohol, or calling the police when you see an intoxicated person preparing to get behind the wheel. Prevention, advocacy, education and community awareness are key to solving this problem.

For information on alcohol and substance abuse in Bexar County contact the Circles of San Antonio (COSA) at 210-225-4741 or by email at coalition@sacada.org. For more information on the work our coalition is doing to reduce drunk drinking in your community check out our Facebook page or follow our Twitter account @circlesofsa.