Sunday, September 6th

Blood Alcohol Content

The state where I live has a .08 blood alcohol tolerance. This means that if you are driving a vehicle – even a golf cart or a bicycle – and your blood alcohol is .08 or above, you’re in big trouble. In real terms, .08 ain’t a lot of booze.

The United States National Institute of Health has provided a chart that details blood alcohol content ranges and the effects of these ranges and it is surprising, at least to me. Good thing I wasn’t behind the wheel very often when I was drinking, or I’d be in jail today.

Apparently, with a blood alcohol content of up to .12 percent (far above the legal driving limit), a person merely becomes self-confident, daring, and a little flush. The primary effect is that their judgment is a little impaired. This stage is named “euphoric”.

From .09 to .25 percent (three times the legal limit!), drinkers become sleepy and can’t remember fats. They are slow or uncoordinated, sometimes dizzy, and their vision becomes blurry. This stage is named “excitement” although there appears to be little excitement going on.

From .18 to .30 percent, the “confusion” state is marked by dizziness, confusion, emotional (aggressive or affectionate), sleepy, slurry, and impaired vision. I remember a lot of time here.

Remarkably, there are two more states one can enter. The “stupor” state (.25 to .4 percent) includes vomiting, lapses in consciousness, and the lack of response to stimuli. I remember being here, too.

The “coma” state (.35 to .5 percent) is just that – unconscious. During my last night of drinking, I think that is where I ended up. Unconscious, cold, and damn near close to death.

Interestingly enough, I felt completely capable of driving well into the “confusion” state and probably did drive in that state. Being between 3 and 4 times the legal limit in our state would have sent me to jail for a mighty long time, so I have to consider myself (and all those people out on the road with me) very, very lucky.

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