Utah already has the strictest drunk driving laws in the US, and they are set to become even stricter. From yesterday, January 1, 2026, everyone, regardless of age, must show their ID to prove they are allowed to purchase alcohol, reports ABC4. Additionally, people convicted of an “extreme DUI” are not allowed to purchase alcohol at all, regardless of age.
House Bill 437also known as the 100% ID lawallows the courts to designate someone convicted of drunk driving as a “prohibited” person. This designation is required if the person is convicted of an ‘extreme DUI’ existing Utah law is defined as a blood alcohol content of 0.16 or higher, 0.05 in combination with another controlled substance, or two or more non-prescribed controlled substances in combination. A prohibited person is prohibited from purchasing alcohol for a period specified by the court, and must obtain a special driver’s license stating “No Alcohol Sales.”
Utah was already the only state with a legal limit of .05 instead of the .08 limit that other states have adopted. That’s low enough to touch after just a few beers. A smaller woman could achieve that after just one. Not that we encourage anyone to drive after drinking, of course. Other states have considered this change, but so far Utah is the only one to make it.
Utah’s interesting attitude toward alcohol
The Beehive State has some other, shall we say, interesting rules regarding alcohol. The same law that legalized the bringing of nine gallons of wine (about a case) into the state also increased the limit of what the state considered liquor from just 4% to a whopping 5%. That means you still have to go to a state-run liquor store to buy Bud Ice with an alcohol content of 5.5%let alone stronger beers or pretty much any wine. If you want to drink something in a restaurant, you are obliged to buy food first. Until 2017, areas where drinks were mixed and poured had to be out of sight of customers, resulting in the so-called “Zion Curtain“partitions at bars in restaurants, because if people can’t see it, it shouldn’t exist.
These rather draconian measures against alcohol, some of which have only been relaxed in Utah in the past decade, probably seem a bit harsh to many of us. The Mormons, who generally founded modern-day Utah don’t believe in drinking alcoholalthough their faith does not directly forbid this either, a philosophy these laws reflect. However, of all states, Utah has one of the lowest rates of fatal DUI crashes. Maybe there’s something to that.
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