NTSB recommends BAC of .05

[OttoVonBismarck]

Also my personal rule post "party years" of my 20s for drinking and driving is basically I take however many drinks I can drink in one hour and still be under .04 (so half the legal limit) and that's how many drinks I'll have and then still drive. For me, at my weight, I can have 3 drinks in hour and be under .04.

But mind, that's my rule for total drinks during the whole night. In practice we're usually talking 3-4 hours at a friend's house or 1.5-2 hours at a restaurant, so in practice my BAC never gets that close to .04.

The only exceptions are really long affairs, like golf days or long cook outs where I plan to drive home. I'll usually allow myself a maximum of 6 beers for the day as long as the drinking is over at least 4+ hours. And actually a typical event like that I might drink six beers, but over six hours time--and that's actually not only lower than .04 but like under .01 BAC; because a beer an hour and you never accumulate a high blood alcohol concentration. I could realistically probably drink twice that in a 6 hour event, but I feel you start playing loose with it and trouble comes. If I know I'm getting intoxicated I'd rather just do it and have my wife drive and not play the counting game--so when I do drink and drive I do it under some rough guidelines to make sure I'm not only never close to .08 but never close to being at a point where I'd make a bad decision to even try tempting fate.

[crazy canuck]

If I am driving I just dont drink at all anymore.  One of the reasons I enjoy entertaining at my house.

[fhdz]

Nothing livens up a party like someone mathematically calculating his BAC the entire fucking time.

[garbon]

Nothing livens up a party like someone mathematically calculating his BAC the entire fucking time.

[garbon]

Actually only if a slide rule is involved.

[sbr]

I had a friend who did something similar to Otto's story.

He got REALLY drunk, took a cab home and then couldn't get into what he thought was his own house.  The key didn't work, the back door wouldn't open and he couldn't find the spare key.  So he kicked the door down and lucky he wasn't shot by the homeowner who was standing just on the other side of the door.

[Barrister]

Nothing livens up a party like someone mathematically calculating his BAC the entire fucking time.

Having run too many impaired trials, and having heard too many experts testify, I can not help but calculate my estimated BAC in my head. 

And I've seen a handful of files similar to Otto's.  My favourite was actually a client of mine - guy got whacked out of his gourd on mushrooms, busted into his neighbours's house, cut himself doing so and for some reason took his clothes off.  Home owner freaked out when they came home and found a naked, bleeding man in their bathroom.

[mongers]

Haven't read every single post in the last day or so, don't necessarily agree with Beeb's position, but quite impressive the way he dealing with several counterparties simultaneously.

Arguing about drunk driving is literally what I do for a living every day.   

Sad really, lots of human potential wasted. 

Was watching a programme about the NHS last night, and nearly ever case was caused or complicated by the people smoking. And after they' been seen to/patched, they all continued to smoke.   

[derspiess]

I'm a happy drunk - I get talkative and then sleepy.

Ditto.  People at work don't know me as being very talkative, but people I pretty much only hang out with during happy hour think I'm a chatterbox.

[Admiral Yi]

When I drink I like to pick fights with girls and cripples.

[Ed Anger]

HEY NOW

[fhdz]

When I drink I like to pick fights with girls and cripples.

Channelling Andy Kaufman, eh?

[alfred russel]

There's a trouble with units here.  The language in our Criminal Code is "milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood", and so that is what I use.  The current legal limit is 80, and we're discussing reducing it to 50.

50 translates to .05, and 80 translates to .08.

Not sure what your 10 refers to.

It refers to .01.  You said you wanted all alcohol levels criminalized.

Nu'uh.  Did not.

You said "We need to change the thinking to "you can not drink any alcohol and drive".  And lowering the limit to 50 is a big part of that."

I don't know how we can change the thinking that you can not drink any alcohol and drive without legal prohibitions (admittedly not criminalization). But you think we can do that from .05 to zero, then lets try that from .08 to .05 too.

[alfred russel]

Do you not see why restricting people from drinking 'moderate' amounts of alcohol, which in this case is roughly 3-5 drinks, and then driving, would also help us discourage people from drinking larger amounts of alcohol and driving?

I thought AF said 1-2 drinks.  Since when is drinking 3-4 drinks considered moderate amounts?  If I sat down and had a half a sixpack I would think I had consumed quite a bit.

Because as I have said, 1-2 drinks is <50 BAC.  3-4 puts you in the 50-100 range that we're talking about.  People don't understand how much you have to drink before you blow over.

According to my reading of Garbon's chart posted upthread, 2 drinks is .05 for a male up to 160 pounds. Is Garbon's chart wrong (or am I reading it wrong, which seems to have some precedent  )

[Barrister]

Do you not see why restricting people from drinking 'moderate' amounts of alcohol, which in this case is roughly 3-5 drinks, and then driving, would also help us discourage people from drinking larger amounts of alcohol and driving?

I thought AF said 1-2 drinks.  Since when is drinking 3-4 drinks considered moderate amounts?  If I sat down and had a half a sixpack I would think I had consumed quite a bit.

Because as I have said, 1-2 drinks is <50 BAC.  3-4 puts you in the 50-100 range that we're talking about.  People don't understand how much you have to drink before you blow over.

According to my reading of Garbon's chart posted upthread, 2 drinks is .05 for a male up to 160 pounds. Is Garbon's chart wrong (or am I reading it wrong, which seems to have some precedent  )

You read it just fine.  That's why I said 1-2 drinks if <50.  Someone with a pretty low bodyweight can go over 50 with 2 drinks (think it's less than 160 lb though).

Remember though, to have those 2 drinks put you over, you need A: to drink them both quite quickly, and B: to be driving 30 minutes later, once you have full absorption.  Once you start adding any amount of time in there you introduce elimination into the equation.