As Shirley Coffman watched her adult son relearn simple skills such as walking and eating after his car was struck by a drunk driver’s in 1990, she knew she had to tell others about the dangers of alcohol abuse.

For 10 years, the Athens resident was a member and officer of the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, offering to show statistics to anyone who would listen.

Those statistics, she believes, show that people are more likely to abuse alcohol when it is easily accessible.

“If we continue to make alcohol so readily available, we can only expect to join the statistics,” Coffman said. “We are, as a city, making alcohol so available to present and future generations to come.”

She wants alcohol sales repealed in Athens, though she cannot say with certainty people won’t drive the 10 miles or so to the county line to buy it.

“Are they going to drive to other counties to get it? I don’t know,” she said.

City residents will vote Tuesday on whether or not to continue sales, which were legalized in a vote in 2003.

Coffman’s statistics show the impact of alcohol abuse, including those on drinking and driving, alcohol-related fatalities and underage drinking.

Many families suffer because someone in their household abuses alcohol, she said.

“One family in particular, I remember the husband always kept alcohol,” she said. “They had a hard time paying their bills. I saw children sick and not able to go to the doctor for lack of money. It was a very bad situation. His children went without the clothes that were really needed. I really felt for this family.”

Proponents of keeping alcohol sales say there is a difference in abuse and drinking in moderation and that availability does not lead to abuse.

Availability = abuse?

Alcohol has long been sold in portions of Limestone County annexed by Madison, Huntsville and Decatur and before a vote legalized sales in Athens, illegal sales kept authorities busy. Sheriff Mike Blakely and Police Chief Wayne Harper say shot houses, residences used as “clubs” where people could buy and consume alcohol, did booming business before sales were legalized.

“We had plenty of liquor in this city and county when it was dry,” Harper has said.