DUIs in La Salle County fall as young drivers switch to pot, officials say

Peru attorney John Fisher has been trying DUI cases more than 30 years. He’s noticed a new trend: His drunken driving clients are getting older.

Not so long ago, young motorists would come in seeking legal counsel after getting pulled over at the end a soggy Friday or Saturday night. These days, fewer 20-somethings are seeking Fisher’s help with a DUI.

“I have an occasional young person,” he said, “but the vast majority are over 30. That’s my private as well as my public defender traffic cases, of which I have over a hundred.”

Fisher said there’s an easy explanation for why: Young people have switched vices, swapping alcohol for cannabis. Young adults are lighting up at home which in turn means the taverns are emptying and the cops see fewer impaired drivers.

“You look at bar crowds – they’re in decline,” Fisher said. “When I first moved down here in the early ’90s, the bars were packed at 10:30 to 1 in the morning. That’s just not the case anymore.”

La Salle County Circuit Court records back that up. Drunken driving arrests in 2024 are tumbling to a record low (projected total: 330), even as felonies are rebounding to pre-COVID norms. True, drunken driving had been falling for years; ever-stiffening penalties and changing social mores have spurred a decline of 15 years and counting.

Now, however, attorneys and police say DUIs keep falling because motorists in their 20s are simply not drinking and driving. Indeed, many seem not to be drinking at all.

Through April 20 there were 100 drunken driving arrests in La Salle County. Just 11 of those suspects were 25 or younger. Court records show the median birth year was 1979, putting the average drunken driver at about 45 years of age.

Streator attorney Jim Reilly started practicing law in 1979, when many of the now-pending defendants were born. Reilly said his DUI clients are grayer today than when he first hung up his shingle.

“It used to be young kids,” Reilly said. “That’s not the case anymore.”

Mendota attorney David Kaleel thinks the economy is most responsible for the overall decline in DUIs, but he, too, thinks the median age is creeping up.

“With inflation comes higher prices, hence less disposable income to spend going out and drinking. With legalized marijuana, many people have switched their vice and drink less,” Kaleel said. “This year I’ve had several young kids receive DUIs ranging from 16 to 25 but the vast majority have been in their 30s or 40s.”

To hear one police chief tell it, young people are committing fewer alcohol-related offenses of any sort. Spring Valley Police Chief Adam Curran said the number of underage drinking citations has “dropped dramatically over the years.”

“We see more and more people using cannabis as opposed to drinking, especially in the younger generation,” Curran said. “This is not to say that the cannabis consumers cannot be charged with DUI, but those consumers tend to stay at home more.”

When they do go out, alcohol isn’t necessarily on the evening agenda. Peru Police Chief Sarah Raymond said young people not only are cognizant of the legal risks of drunken driving, but also the health consequences of excessive drinking.

“The current generation has also been known to make decisions that are leading them to healthier lifestyles,” Raymond said, “including drinking ‘mocktails’ instead of cocktails and an overall concern for their own personal safety and livelihood in establishing designated drivers before they go out each night.”

Ottawa Police Chief Brent Roalson said not only are his DUI numbers down year-over-year, but there seem to be fewer night owls out and about.

“The officers note that there is still (following COVID) a reduced amount of people in local bars,” Roalson said.

Are we witnessing a generational shift? Mothers Against Drunk Driving doesn’t have the data to confirm that – at least not yet.

Bonnie Jones is court monitoring project manager for the MADD region that includes Illinois. Springfield decriminalized cannabis in 2017 and legalized recreational cannabis in 2019, so Jones said MADD needs a few more years’ data before rendering any long-term conclusions. That cannabis has encroached into alcohol’s market share, however, is beyond dispute.

“Cannabis-related impaired driving arrests were at about 5% of the cases monitored in 2020-21,” Jones said. “Cannabis-related impaired driving arrests were at 13% of the cases monitored in 2022-23.”

A younger generation may be switching from alcohol to cannabis for pleasure, but Fisher thinks it’s also a strategic decision by young party-goers: With cannabis, impairment is harder to prove.

“Pot is the preference because of law enforcement’s inability to gather evidence to prosecute,” Fisher said. “I also think it’s less impairing than alcohol, motor skills-wise.”