Should Latvia have zero tolerance of drunk driving?

Currently in Latvia drivers are still allowed to drive a car if their blood alcohol concentration does not exceed 0.5 per mille, but the Ministry of Transport has not even evaluated the potential introduction of a zero threshold for all drivers, as exists in many other European Union countries.

The current general limit for drivers in Latvia is 0.5 per mille. If you look at the map of the European Union countries, most countries have this limit, but there are also quite a few exceptions.

In Lithuania, the permissible limit is 0.4 per mille, in Sweden, Estonia and Poland – 0.2, while in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia it is zero.

0.5 per mille is a common norm in Western Europe, but in our region – the Baltics, the Nordic countries and Central Europe – only Finland allows this much. But if you look east, even in Russia and Belarus the current limit is 0.3 per mille.

It should be noted that there are exceptions in Latvia: 0.2 per mille is the limit for young drivers with up to two years of driving experience and professional drivers, but for everyone else it is 0.5.

However, in Latvia, criminal liability only occurs above 1.5 per mille – three times over the legal limit – and then the car faces confiscation. In Poland, criminal liability begins at 0.5 per mille, but in Sweden, even drunk driving at 0.2 per mille is a crime punishable by up to six months in prison. From 1.0 per mille it is classed as a serious crime punishable by up to two years in prison. The practices of countries vary, but Latvia is one of the most tolerant in this regard.

In the 15th Saeima pre-election debates organized by Latvian Television, politicians were asked whether it was necessary to set a zero alcohol limit for drivers. There is political support, at least in terms of promises, and one might think that such an alcohol limit could also be introduced if someone proposed it.

Pre-election debates were considerably enlivened by the fact that a serving government minister was caught drunk driving well over the limit and sacked as a result.

It is also worth bearing in mind that Latvia consistently posts some of the EU's worst road death statistics.

Forbidden Method asked residents on the streets of Rīga whether they would support reducing the 0.5 per mille threshold to 0.0. Those surveyed expressed support for the idea, but also doubts about whether politicians would implement it. 

There has been some more formal research on this topic. For example, data from the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for 2025 show that 63% of residents aged 15 to 64 would support setting a zero blood alcohol limit as mandatory for drivers. However, support for this idea has fallen over the past 10 years - in 2015, 80% of respondents answered "yes" to this notion.

Previous attempts

There have already been several attempts in Latvia to change the per mille limit. In 2019, the Ministry of Health proposed a 0.2 per mille limit for all drivers, but it was not implemented. In 2021, MP Kaspars Ģirģens (elected as part of the now defunct KPV LV party) proposed a zero limit, but received no support from the relevant parliamentary commission and withdrew the proposals. In 2022 he tried again, proposing 0.2 per mille for everyone and zero for young and public transport drivers. Again the proposals went nowhere.

Kaspars Ģirģens remembers that it was not only the Saeima members who were negative: "There was also a lot of negativity from the ministry representatives that we cannot introduce these zero per milles in Latvia right now. Despite the fact that many countries in Europe have already introduced them and positive trends are also visible." 

He is still convinced that a lower limit needs to be introduced. "That would be the simplest thing. We drive, we don't drink. Just as it was difficult for people to get used to using car seat belts before, now it's everyday life. We sit down, buckle up. Just like with child seats," said Ģirgens.

Medical professionals agree that the lower the level, the better,

Narcologist and psychiatrist Ņikita Šakels said: "I am in favour of zero blood alcohol levels at the wheel and at important jobs as such. I am aware that there are traditions, there is a very long-standing trend and history of human alcohol consumption." 

"The thing is that alcohol itself removes the brakes. We have a frontal cortex which is fully formed on average after twenty-five years. It is very important biologically, I talk about it quite a lot and often, and alcohol causes that part of the brake, that frontal lobe, to shut down, and that is the first step in how alcohol begins to affect the brain," said the narcologist.

Narcologist and cognitive behavioral therapy practitioner Ilze Maksima is also "in favour" of a zero alcohol limit. "It's not like a person gets drunk and then immediately gets behind the wheel. He's testing. He's testing himself, testing the situation, testing the country. You don't see police cars on the streets." 

Maksima said: "Drink one beer, drink another beer, oh, it's okay! But two beers actually have a very specific effect on his thinking. It's not the same person." 

"This is like playing with matches in a haystack. I could catch fire and maybe I could also, as they say, explode," said Maksima. She also pointed out: "If we are thinking about restrictions, this alcohol limit, then why are we selling alcohol at gas stations? Well, it just doesn't go together."

Automotive journalist Pauls Timrots was critical of the promises made by politicians during the pre-election period. "Politicians will promise any nonsense, ask them, and it will be something good to them to get votes. We probably shouldn't take this too seriously, because we will also see a lot of ministers who think that by raising the fines, everyone will suddenly stop drinking. Well, we know that those [confiscated] drunk cars are still being sent to Ukraine." 

Timrots is sceptical about lowering the permissible blood alcohol level to zero. He said: "Who can measure that zero so accurately? It seems to me that it would be rational and economical to set the 0.2 simply for those adults, long-time drivers, which is now 0.2 for new drivers. Well, let's say we all have 0.2."

It should be added that Timrot's television show "Zebra" about ten years ago tested what the breathalyzer shows immediately after consuming soft drinks such as kvass, non-alcoholic beer, chocolate candies and using mouthwash. The readings were positive, even though there was no alcohol in the blood. 

Clear message

Traffic safety expert Oskars Irbītis is currently involved in the analysis of serious traffic accidents on behalf of the Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD). He is in favour of a zero limit. His main argument is that there should be no tolerance for drunk driving, because currently 0.5 – or even 0.2 – still says that 'a little' is okay.

Irbītis draws attention to the still very high number of serious accidents with victims who were involved in alcohol intoxication. The 2025 interim report of the CSDD serious accident research project covers a total of 184 accidents, of which 123 were investigated in detail. The report mentions 53 accidents in which a road user was found to be under the influence of alcohol. This does not mean 53 drunk drivers or 53 alcohol-related accidents. The list also includes other people involved, including passengers.

But if the zero per mille law were to be adopted, according to the expert, it would be very important to ensure appropriate control. 

Sanita Lazdiņa, Deputy Head of the Mental Health, Addiction Prevention and Integrated Services Department of the Ministry of Health, said:

"Yes, we would definitely support [a zero limit]. Do you know why? Because in principle, the World Health Organization considers these blood alcohol limits to be one of the solutions to reduce drunk driving. And it is also good practice in other countries. That is why we definitely support this." 

A high-ranking international expert, Dr. Jürgen Rehm, an alcohol epidemiologist who conducts various international studies, has long collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the field of alcohol monitoring and policy. He is also in favor of setting a zero per mille threshold for drivers.

"Scientifically, it is absolutely clear that the safest limit is zero. And we have evidence for that. First of all, experiments – real experiments. We give people alcohol and have them drive in a driving simulator. Driving ability deteriorates already at 0.01 per mille, and many experiments have shown this convincingly."

"And we know: when countries implement zero – go from 0.5 to zero or from 0.3 to zero – the number of alcohol-related traffic injuries decreases," the expert said. He has no doubt that Latvian society would also appreciate such a ban, but if we want it to have a real effect, then there must be adequate control - something that Irbītis also mentioned. 

Rehm emphasized: "We know that punishment by itself does not deter. It is the punishment, multiplied by the probability of getting caught, that deters. If you know that the probability of getting caught is almost zero, the punishment can be as big as you want - you don't care."

But most importantly, he also sees a clear message to society in the zero per mille policy: if you drink, don't drive.

What does the Ministry of Transport say about the zero idea? The written response received by Forbidden Method is surprising in that it appears the ministry has not seriously evaluated the idea of ​​a zero alcohol limit for all drivers at all - it only has an assessment of the proposal considered in the Saeima to set a zero alcohol limit for bus, trolleybus and tram drivers. 

The Ministry of Transport's Communications Department stated:

"The Ministry of Transport has concluded that it would be useful to conduct an in-depth impact assessment before establishing zero tolerance at the legal level." 

"The available information does not indicate a systematic problem in the group of professional drivers in the 0.2–0.5 per mille range," the ministry said. However, in the same response, the ministry admits that such data simply does not exist – the State Police does not record drivers below 0.5 per mille limit. If the limit was zero, the police would have to record even very small concentrations.

The ministry itself refers in its response to the new European Union directive on driving licences, which encourages member states to introduce zero tolerance for all drivers, but adds that this is a recommendation, not an obligation.