Fireflybob
An interesting view.
When I take a flight, I prefer that the flight deck crew be physically and mentally fit to undertake their alloted duties.
I have no doubt that as you say 99% are.
That leaves us to (say) the 1%
Now of those 1% a number will perhaps be OK to fly but may be technically over the specified limit, some will definitely be well above the limit, and I am sure that at least 1 of those 1% will be technically 'drunk'.
I cannot put numbers to those percentages, however I am sure that the aviation experts can and no doubt will.
A number of posters have effectively said that they don't agree with the drug and alcohol legislation as Pilots are capable of determining their own fitness to fly.
That may well be so.
Let me pose this question.
If you travel by train exactly how safe would you feel if the track your train was due to travel over at 125 mph had been inspected by me, or the points certified as safe, or work carried out on the signalling by me or my colleagues.
As responsible professionally trained and competent people with all manner of checks and counter-checks on our performance no doubt you would be perfectly happy. Indeed you have to be because no-one else can do this type of job without an awful lot of training and experience.
If I or one of my colleagues restores a railway line to traffic and/or certifies signalling or other equipment critical to the safety we are making a legal statement and accepting the legal consequences of an error in our work, our checking or our inspection. Sometimes we will have to rely upon our professional judgement, always a very dificult thing to explain to certain classes of the bewigged buffoonery.
Historically very very few railway accidents were caused by critical staff being drunk, similar I guess to airline pilots.
Exactly HOW safe would you now feel if we were to be over the alcohol limit when we undertook such safety critical activities?. This bearing in mind that we are professional personnel capable of judging our own fitness?
Rat 5 Thank you !