Story highlights Beau Kilmer writes that alcohol is a "dangerous drug"

A South Dakota program creates a credible deterrent threat, he says

Beau Kilmer is co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center and co-author of the forthcoming second edition of "Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know." The views expressed are his own.

(CNN) Inside the Washington beltway and in state capitols across America, there is growing bipartisan agreement about the need for criminal justice reform.

Republican Newt Gingrich and Democrat Van Jones entered the fray recently with a CNN op-ed about America's failing prison system , joining the chorus for change that includes everyone from the ACLU to the Koch brothers. But if America is going to get serious about decreasing incarceration and crime at the same time, it needs to deal with a dangerous drug inextricably linked with accidents, assaults and death: alcohol.

How? Well, here's a provocative but potentially transformative idea: If your alcohol use causes you to behave in a way that threatens public health and public safety, let's suspend your license to drink.

In the United States, everyone gets an unconditional license to purchase and consume as much alcohol as they want when they turn 21. If someone repeatedly drives recklessly and gets caught, their license to drive can be suspended or revoked. Shouldn't a similar approach be taken for reckless alcohol use?

The idea isn't as farfetched as it might sound. South Dakota, for example, has already tried suspending the "license to drink" for more than 30,000 alcohol-involved offenders -- with dramatic results.

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