Laramie drivers caught with blood alcohol content of 0.15 or more face harsher consequences this year than they did in 2010.

A new DUI law, recently passed by the Laramie City Council, creates tougher penalties for those caught driving with high BAC levels. 

Anyone arrested for a driving with a BAC of 0.15 faces an automatic seven days in jail and a minimum $750 fine, if found guilty. 

The new law also goes so far as to impose a one week jail sentence on people who are believed to be intoxicated, but refuse a breathalyzer test.    

The new laws should force everyone in town to think twice before drinking and driving. After all, the new DUI penalties can have disastrous effects on your professional, academic and financial lives. Not only should that, but anyone who has a BAC of 0.15 or more should not operate a motor vehicle in first place.  

If you want to stay in your current line of employment, you should probably stay off the roads after you have had too much to drink. 

If you choose to drive after you have had a few too many, don’t be surprised when you are arrested, spend seven days behind bars and are released to discover you have been fired.

I’ve yet to find an employer who will tolerate a week-long absence from any of their employees for anything other than a major illness or a pregnancy. Undoubtedly they will have little or no sympathy firing you because you drank way more than you should have and then decided to drive.

For those of us who are in college, the consequences of being arrested for driving after consuming large amounts of alcohol can be severe. 

While I know many students who have missed a week’s worth of classes, I’ve never known of them to stay enrolled in school for very long. This is probably because missing an entire week of school can set you back significantly in your studies. 

Not only do you have to catch up on the assignments and reading you missed, you have to try and keep up with your scheduled course work. 

Even worse though, you may have to explain to your instructor that you missed class after driving intoxicated, and as a result, are behind in your work. 

Don’t expect any more sympathy from your instructor than the worker received from his boss. You should not expect it because you do not deserve it.

And then there are the purely financial reasons—a minimum of 750 of them—for you not to drive after you have had too much alcohol.

While a night of drinking can be great fun, I doubt that anyone can say that a good time coupled with a bad decision is worth a $750 fine. This is especially true when you consider how much more this fine will cost you considering you may have lost your job  

The last thing I would tell anyone is: “Don’t go out and have a good time. Don’t drink!” 

Doing so would be both impractical and hypocritical. 

By all means, you should go out, drink and have fun. But you should do so responsibly, which means being prepared to walk home, call SafeRide or have a designated driver with you or one lined out to pick you up. 

If you don’t want to drink responsibly, be prepared for the potential consequences.