{"id":973,"date":"2012-03-09T12:05:28","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T19:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alcoholmonitoring.com\/blog\/?p=973"},"modified":"2021-08-26T12:08:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T18:08:11","slug":"to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/","title":{"rendered":"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More&#160;Important?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re driving, the answer is obvious. But if you\u2019re a court, or a probation officer, a lawmaker, or a treatment provider, it\u2019s actually a question I\u2019d like to post for further&#160;thought.<\/p>\n<p>As technologies have made it possible to know precisely\u2014daily\u2014hourly\u2014HALF hourly\u2014exactly what people are putting into their bodies and with a great deal of reliability, the question of \u201cIs he or isn\u2019t he drinking\/using\u201d is actually changing in focus a bit. The days of guessing, trusting, depending on friends and loved ones to \u201cvouch\u201d for an offender\u2019s sobriety have given way to data\u2014and a lot of it. \u201cEvidence-based\u201d information is the research speak. \u00a0And the focus is invariably, almost exclusively, on the ones who drink or use, despite being monitored and the fact that there are criminal consequences. In marketing we\u2018re busy touting the ability to manage a caseload by focusing on only the ones who need intervention and action. Focus your time and resources on the ones who drink and&#160;use.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But what about the ones who&#160;don\u2019t?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve just passed the 220,000 clients monitored mark, and what\u2019s more notable than the number of offenders we\u2019ve confirmed drinking\u2014is the ones we\u2019ve confirmed who did not. What surprises many courts we talk to is that 80% of our clients who are monitored with SCRAMx have been fully compliant, while the grand majority of the remaining 20 percent have consumed alcohol or tampered only one to two times. <strong>That\u2019s 20.2 million sober days and&#160;counting<\/strong>. And that\u2019s just&#160;<em>our<\/em> technology. Drug testing programs that can confirm drugs days and weeks after use are highly effective. Interlock programs promote their \u201cstart fail\u201d numbers\u2014the number of times their technologies stop someone from driving a vehicle while intoxicated. But maybe what is more noteworthy are the greatly diminished rates of repeat alcohol offenses while they\u2019ve got interlock&#160;installed.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"HOPE Probation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hopeprobation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HOPE Probation<\/a> is a noteworthy program out of Hawaii that began with a judge who instituted mandatory, frequent testing with swift and immediate sanctions for violations. Local officials initially were concerned about what they perceived would be a rapid rise in violations\u2014and the staff and facilities required to house those sentenced to a short time in jail for the violation. What surprised them all was that violations went down. Dramatically. <a title=\"Pepperdine University Study of HOPE Probation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.alcoholandcrime.org\/images\/uploads\/pdf_tools\/hope_2008.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A study of the program out of Pepperdine University<\/a> showed an 85% reduction in missed appointments and a 91% drop in positive urine tests. All because of frequent testing and swift sanctions. What became notable was no longer the violations, but the compliance. The sober&#160;days.<\/p>\n<p>Sober days are the ones without impaired driving, without substance-driven domestic violence. They\u2019re the days offenders make their required appointments, get to treatment, report for work, and help care for their families. Which focus do you have as you manage offenders in your program each day? Are both important? Or one more than the&#160;other?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re driving, the answer is obvious. But if you\u2019re a court, or a probation officer, a lawmaker, or a treatment provider, it\u2019s actually a question I\u2019d like to post for further&#160;thought. As technologies have made it possible to know precisely\u2014daily\u2014hourly\u2014HALF hourly\u2014exactly what people are putting into their bodies and with a great deal of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[49,60,218,223,355,555,571,621,626,656],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol-addiction","category-making-a-difference","tag-alcohol-abuse","tag-alcohol-dependence","tag-drinking-alcohol-problems","tag-drinking-problems","tag-hope-probation","tag-pepperdine-university","tag-problem-drinking","tag-sober-days","tag-sobering-up","tag-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More Important? | Sobering Up<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you\u2019re driving, the answer is obvious. But if you\u2019re a court, or a probation officer, a lawmaker, or a treatment provider, it\u2019s actually a question I\u2019d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More Important? | Sobering Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you\u2019re driving, the answer is obvious. But if you\u2019re a court, or a probation officer, a lawmaker, or a treatment provider, it\u2019s actually a question I\u2019d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sobering Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-09T19:05:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-26T18:08:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/SoberingUp_LogIcon144.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"144\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"144\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sobering Up Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@scramsystems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@scramsystems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sobering Up Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sobering Up Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512\"},\"headline\":\"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More&#160;Important?\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-09T19:05:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-26T18:08:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/\"},\"wordCount\":507,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"alcohol abuse\",\"alcohol dependence\",\"drinking alcohol problems\",\"drinking problems\",\"HOPE Probation\",\"Pepperdine University\",\"problem drinking\",\"Sober Days\",\"sobering up\",\"success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Alcohol Misuse &amp; Abuse\",\"Making a Difference\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/\",\"name\":\"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More Important? | Sobering Up\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-09T19:05:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-26T18:08:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"If you\u2019re driving, the answer is obvious. But if you\u2019re a court, or a probation officer, a lawmaker, or a treatment provider, it\u2019s actually a question I\u2019d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More&#160;Important?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Sobering Up\",\"description\":\"Covering drunk driving, alcohol addiction, and criminal justice.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"SCRAM Systems\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sobering-up-logo-retina.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sobering-up-logo-retina.png\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":290,\"caption\":\"SCRAM Systems\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/scramsystems\",\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/alcohol-monitoring-systems\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/scramsystems\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512\",\"name\":\"Sobering Up Administrator\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/su-admin-logo-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/su-admin-logo-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Sobering Up Administrator\"},\"description\":\"Sobering Up: A blog about drunk driving, alcohol addiction, and criminal justice, is anything but a corporate blog. Sobering Up is an opportunity for anyone interested or involved in the issues of drunk driving, alcohol-fueled crime, alcohol dependence and addiction, and the justice system to participate in the conversation.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/author\/sp-admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More Important? | Sobering Up","description":"If you\u2019re driving, the answer is obvious. But if you\u2019re a court, or a probation officer, a lawmaker, or a treatment provider, it\u2019s actually a question I\u2019d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More Important? | Sobering Up","og_description":"If you\u2019re driving, the answer is obvious. But if you\u2019re a court, or a probation officer, a lawmaker, or a treatment provider, it\u2019s actually a question I\u2019d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/","og_site_name":"Sobering Up","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx","article_published_time":"2012-03-09T19:05:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-26T18:08:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":144,"height":144,"url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/SoberingUp_LogIcon144.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sobering Up Administrator","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@scramsystems","twitter_site":"@scramsystems","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sobering Up Administrator","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/"},"author":{"name":"Sobering Up Administrator","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512"},"headline":"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More&#160;Important?","datePublished":"2012-03-09T19:05:28+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-26T18:08:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/"},"wordCount":507,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["alcohol abuse","alcohol dependence","drinking alcohol problems","drinking problems","HOPE Probation","Pepperdine University","problem drinking","Sober Days","sobering up","success"],"articleSection":["Alcohol Misuse &amp; Abuse","Making a Difference"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/","name":"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More Important? | Sobering Up","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-03-09T19:05:28+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-26T18:08:11+00:00","description":"If you\u2019re driving, the answer is obvious. But if you\u2019re a court, or a probation officer, a lawmaker, or a treatment provider, it\u2019s actually a question I\u2019d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/to-drink-or-not-to-drink-which-is-actually-more-important\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"To Drink or Not to Drink: Which is Actually More&#160;Important?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/","name":"Sobering Up","description":"Covering drunk driving, alcohol addiction, and criminal justice.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"SCRAM Systems","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sobering-up-logo-retina.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sobering-up-logo-retina.png","width":1100,"height":290,"caption":"SCRAM Systems"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx","https:\/\/x.com\/scramsystems","http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/alcohol-monitoring-systems","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/scramsystems"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512","name":"Sobering Up Administrator","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/su-admin-logo-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/su-admin-logo-96x96.jpg","caption":"Sobering Up Administrator"},"description":"Sobering Up: A blog about drunk driving, alcohol addiction, and criminal justice, is anything but a corporate blog. Sobering Up is an opportunity for anyone interested or involved in the issues of drunk driving, alcohol-fueled crime, alcohol dependence and addiction, and the justice system to participate in the conversation.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/author\/sp-admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}