Drink Drive Limit

[Laza10]

Just out of curiosity I have been looking on the net for general advice on how much can be drunk before you are over the drink driving limit. I don't drink drive at all but some of my friends do - though they tend to stick to just one drink. I know it depends on stature, weight, gender etc but does anyone know any general rules on how much you can drink before you will be over the limit? eg: is 2 medium glasses of wine too much? or is a pint of beer ok?
Thanks.

[New Judge]

The question you are asking has no definitive answer even for one person.

The amount of drink needed to bring any individual over the drink drive limit varies enormously depending on (among many other things) the person�s intake of food, their general health, how tired they are and, for women, where they are in their monthly cycle. A person may drink two glasses of wine one day and be safely under the limit and drink two identical glasses the next day and be over.

The only safe way to ensure that you are under the legal limit is to take no alcohol at all. Even then your blood will still contain some alcohol as it is manufactured by the body from other non-alcoholic food and drink (hence the reason why a �zero tolerance� law would be impractical).

[Laza10]

thanks for this!

[Buenchico]

As NJ states, the only way to be absolutely sure of remaining 'within the limit' is to avoid all alcohol.

However, it's no accident that the current TV ads (where the barman rapidly takes on the guises of lots of different people) make refrence to "You had two pints, so you were over the limit". That's around the level whre the vast majority of people would be over the limit.

Here's a very rough guide:

1 unit: Very minor, but measurable, impairment of reaction times. Not over the limit.

2 units: Reaction times far more noticeably impaired. Very unlikely to be over the limit.

3 units: Significant slowing of reaction times. Most people around, and possibly just over, the legal limit.

4 units: Reaction times even worse (typically resulting in stopping distances being around 3 or 4 times those achieved by a completely sober driver). Nearly everyone over the legal limit.

1 pint of a 'standard' bitter or lager (e.g. Carlsberg) at 3.8% abv contains 2.16 units of alcohol.

1 pint of a 'premium' bitter or lager (e.g. Stella Artois) at 5.0% abc contains 2.84 units.

A single (35ml) pub measure of spirit (at 40% abv) contains 1.4 units.

A typical (175ml) pub glass of red wine (at 13.5% abv) contains 2.36 units.

Chris