Thats the most moving story I've ever heard.
Did he not write, or anything?
She often drinks 2-3 pints of an evening, knows it's not a healthy thing to do, but said she was in no way cause for concern
Did you not point out that you weren't questionong the effect on her health?
This is stateside
Then a) she's probably not drinking pints and b) probably not drinking beer.
mate was sleeping in his car when the police knocked him up at 3am.
Pop quiz, what did he blow?
One way of avoiding a ticket I suppose.
Did he not write, or anything?
I think he was drinking alot, as a way of coping with having to drive back to somewhere like Bury?
Are you sure he wasn't drinking as a coping mechanism for not being able to reveal his true feelings for you?
Sounds a lot like your friend has a serious problem.
I like a drink as much (or probably more) than the next person. However, I'll never, ever mix it with driving. Even one pint leaves me feeling a little "floaty" and I don't trust myself to get behind the wheel.
The one that really scares me is the morning after. I wonder how many hung over drivers there are who are still over the limit...
I once told a friend that, if he drove home after having drunk four pints, I'd report him on the phone. He didn't believe I'd do it. We're not friends any longer.
I'd do the same to any of you. (and I love you lot)
Rachel
I once told a friend that, if he drove home after having drunk four pints, I'd report him on the phone. He didn't believe I'd do it. We're not friends any longer.I'd do the same to any of you.
But you don't know where we live.
Or do you? 😯
If we were drinking in the pub, martinhutch, I wouldn't need to know where you live...
Rachel
Damn you and your logic.
One pint is the limit for driving for me, that counts for the whole day.
Are you sure he wasn't drinking as a coping mechanism for not being able to reveal his true feelings for you?
Well I am a sexual Tyrannosaurus.
Hora:
Well I am a sexual Tyrannosaurus.
A sexual dinosaur?
My mate blew 30 and the officer told him to go home.
How I know not.
Well I am a sexual Tyrannosaurus.
A T-Sex?
(Wow, this thread took a turn for the weird...)
Like many [s]Americans,[/s] people she has a drink problem.
Whats that coming over the hill.....?
Nevermind rural areas, here in Nairobi, a very large urban area, it's common place too. The roads are barely wide enough for two vehicles and are in shitstate as well (you think British potholes are bad...). Most people justify it with the argument about the security situation out here and Nairobbery's reputation for criminality (i.e. getting in a taxi and getting robbed, usually at gunpoint)/carjacking/house invasions. Not uncommon on Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon mornings to see cars dumped in ditches or major damage to roadside infrastructure. How more people aren't killed or injured I don't know, maybe it's because they're all at it...
Like many Americans, people she has a drink problem.
It wouldn't surprise me if the majority of British adults are functioning alcoholics.
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/AlcoSense-Breathalyzer-alcohol-tester--Breathalyser/dp/B001LZ3D02/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1413288226&sr=8-2&keywords=breathalyzer ]Buy her one of these...[/url]
[img] 
[/img]
Pop quiz, what did he blow?
One way of avoiding a ticket I suppose.
LOL!
It wouldn't surprise me if the majority of British adults are functioning alcoholics.
Define 'functioning'?
I've not had a drink since last Thursday pm due to being ill. TBH I don't miss it.
Maybe a good time to revert to alcohol only on a Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues and Wed night.
You don't do lunchtimes?
lightweight!
No no I mean 24hours Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues but only Wed night.
Before I say anything else can I declare that I do not think it's a good idea to drive after 4 pints. However, I've actually conducted some completely unscientific and anecdotal experiments with an electronic breathalyser (a good quality one at that, which is not used by the police), and the results were pretty eye-opening.
Myself and a few mates whilst sitting around drinking at home breathalysed ourselves at regular intervals throughout the night. I managed to get to 6 pints of ale/normal strength lager before the machine consistently said I was over the legal limit. Everyone in the room got to the equivalent of 4 pints before it starting showing the red light. Alarmingly if you smoked a cigarette it cut the reading by 50%. If you tested immediately after having a drink it doubled it. Maybe the machine was faulty but I doubt it. Of course it doesn't answer the real question of whether someone would be 'fit' to drive after 4 pints. I guess that can only be answered by other qualified people after assessing their inebriated state, which is why it probably makes sense to have a popularly understood 'limit' with a reasonably large safety margin.
When I was studying in Mississippi in the early 90s everyone DUI'd home from the bars - mostly because the Police would arrest people walking around after dark. Except for me, because apparently I was that crazy Brit who walked everywhere. In the end I just cycled everywhere instead.
We drove across the Delta in a 62 Buick with the driver finishing a pitcher of Gin and Tonic, then turning off the lights and demanding Abita Turbo Dog....
Hitched a ride in Memphis from a properly pissed up guy drinking a quart of Jack, who pulled out a pistol from underneath the seat...
the Beaux Arts Ball with the drunk frat boy redlining his 911 up and down the road outside and the Chevy with a bong that filled the trunk (and huge stereo playing Ween....)
. Maybe the machine was faulty but I doubt it.
I was once breathalised cycling back from the pub in the middle of the night with no lights on (I was 17 and daft) and, despite having been on the vodka all night and not being able to walk straight, I passed. I refused the offer of a lift home so they followed me all the way to my door to make sure I got home ok.
If I tried I could neck 6 pints before the first one even registered. There's a delay of at least an hour after the last drink before you'd peak, even more if you've been eating as it slows the absorbtion, but it all has to be digested sometime.Maybe the machine was faulty but I doubt it.
Not defending her and I wouldn't do it - but isn't all beer in the States about 1% ? And not real pints ? I know this is a technicality, but she may have been less drunk than you think. Bodyweight can have an impact too.
I think the whole 1 hour per unit is based on similar "science" as the recommended weekly amounts. It just isn't a one-size-fits-all measurement. How do I know? Back when I was young and foolish, I blew an average 105ug in Huddersfield nick. It was 2:00am, and I was told to expect a long period of boredom as I was to be kept in the cells until I was below the legal drive limit of 35ug. I blew an average 32ug on the same instrument at 10:30am the same morning. Police were somewhat baffled, but the machine doesn't lie. (Before the pitchforks come out there were some... extenuating circumstances for driving whilst that pissed, as attested to by Huddersfield Magistrates Court endorsing my license with 0 points. It's a long and boring story.)
The point is, OP's friend may well have been fine driving after 4 pints over a number of hours. She may also have been a fuel-injected killing machine.
Either way, as has been said above the only truly safe level is 0 and I wouldn't flinch in the slightest if this became law.
If I tried I could neck 6 pints before the first one even registered.
I once had a work colleague who actually practised this routinely. The post-work Friday pub conversation would usually go...
WC: 'Right I'm off'
Me: 'Are you driving???'
WC: 'Yeah'
Me: 'But you've drank about 6 pints!'
WC: 'Yeah I know and if I don't go now it'll show up on a breathalyser'.
On a separate point, I actually think drink-driving is much more widespread than people think it's just people don't talk about it or admit it for obvious reasons. I almost have a grudging respect for those I know who are open about it.
Agree- go to any popular pub and its carpark will be full. Not all will be soda-drinking/drink sacrificing friends. In the morning there are always 2 odd cars left there. All have gone.
Well I can't seem to find any pictures, so couldn't possibly comment at this time.M6TTF
So would a 40yr old female be fit
The only way to be safe is to drive when you know you've got 0 units in your system.
And you are not tired, or otherwise impaired in any way.
Also you're a safe driver.
. If you tested immediately after having a drink it doubled it
Mouth alcohol. Guidelines used to be to wait 20 mins after last drink before breathalysing to avoid a false reading from mouth alcohol.
And not busy texting on your stupid 'phone.... etc. etc.cynic-al - Member
The only way to be safe is to drive when you know you've got 0 units in your system.
And you are not tired, or otherwise impaired in any way.Also you're a safe driver
^This. There is an a-hole in our village who is, I think, stretching his luck very thin. He put his BMW X5 on it's roof on the way back from the pub a month or so back, but the police didn't find the car until the morning. I've seen him diriving early mornings looking like Mr Punch, clearly still the worse for wear, and I'm hoping they pinch him soon.hora - Member
Agree- go to any popular pub and its carpark will be full. Not all will be soda-drinking/drink sacrificing friends. In the morning there are always 2 odd cars left there. All have gone
Report him to the Police.
I think the whole 1 hour per unit is based on similar "science" as the recommended weekly amounts
No it is based on careful clinical studies of IV administered alcohol in known doses. See for example http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8872236 . Full text [url= http://jat.oxfordjournals.org/content/20/5/287.long ]here[/url], and a nice paper on volume of distribution. Note the very linear concentration-time curves - unusual for the vast majority of drugs.
The plural of anecdote is not data.
Well, Professor Snark, my experience isn't in alcohol metabolism specifically but I studied enzyme production with respect to the metabolism of various drugs, with a view to tailoring patient-specific immunosuppressant dose rates in organ transplant recipients. People metabolise things at different rates depending on their genetic makeup, and to try and cater for everyone with a single rule doesn't always work out. That's what I'm getting at.
Also, whilst the concentration curves may well be fairly linear, the time taken to eliminate all alcohol from the breath samples ranged from 280 minutes to 455 minutes, so I'm not entirely sure how that study contradicts my point.
On about 3 pints I'm mental on a bike- really smooth and quick.
On zero pints I'm like Bambi on ice on a bike.
In a car I think I'd be lethal on even just two pints.
For the "0 should be the limit" argument it simply can't be. The body naturally produces alchol and therefore a 0 limit could potentially see everyone banned even if they were teetotal. My job has a blood alcohol limit of 25% of the drink drive limit purely for that reason. Which basically equates to have any alcoholic drink and you are over that lower limit.
Our medical department give the advice of 1 unit per hour for the body to get rid of, this starting from when finish drinking and provided it has not been a lot of drinks.
contradicts my point.
It doesn't, there is of course between-subject variability in drug metabolism, and dose recommendations are based on mean behaviour with accommodation for variability from subject-to-subject. My point was that 21 units a week recommendations are based on mass epidemiological studies that do not have prospective controls. Whereas elimination of alcohol is an easily studied clinical problem with variation. Hence the one unit per hour is on a stronger scientific footing.
The genotyping drug revolution failed to take off for most treatments because other intrinsic factors, many not understood (drug transporters for example), can have as much effect. Variance in alcohol clearance isn't subject to these to the same extent because elimination pathways are saturated at the doses we like to administer - It's the linear elimination that makes alcohol concentrations so predictable. Back extrapolation means that if you are a slow metabolizer, then you might squeak under the limit.
