About half of the people informally polled in the Twin Cities early this week didn’t know what blood-alcohol level constitutes criminal drunk driving. That’s better than the 70 percent of people polled nationwide who didn’t know. But does any of this really matter?

Do we have to know the exact booze-to-blood reading that defines drunk driving?

It is far more important to know the number of drinks we can safely consume and remain sober.

Blood-alcohol content quantifies the percent of alcohol flowing in the blood stream. That’s not something we can measure ourselves. Who has a breathalyzer kit in the glove box?

But we can measure the number of glasses we’ve emptied.

We do know, within a reasonable number of pounds, how much we weigh.

And we generally know how long we’ve been drinking.

That’s all the information we need to figure out how many glasses of alcoholic beverages our body size can consume over a certain number of hours and remain within the law.

And that’s far more important than knowing with mathematical precision that anything above a .08 blood alcohol level is considered drunk driving in Maine.

A 160-pound person can consume three drinks before attaining a .08 blood alcohol level. A smaller person reaches that level after two drinks, and a much larger person may consume as many as 5 drinks before reaching the legal limit to drive. It’s a matter of body mass being able to absorb the alcohol.

You don’t need anything more than a calculator to help you figure out what your personal limit is.

DrunkDrivingDefense.com has created a chart from National Highway Transportation Safety Administration data that makes calculation a simple matter of finding your body weight on the chart, reading over to the number of drinks consumed and subtracting .015 percent per hour to calculate how impaired you may be.

Doing this while drunk doesn’t make a lot of sense, and few people would be so inclined. These calculations are best done sober.

Figure out how many drinks you can consume over two or three hours and still drive safely. Once you figure out what your body weight is able to absorb, the information won’t change unless your weight changes dramatically. It’s information you can use when deciding whether “just one more” is a smart move.

If the math is too daunting, have a friend do it for you. And perhaps bars and restaurants could post the information in restrooms like casinos post phone numbers to help addicts find Gamblers Anonymous.

Too many people mistake tolerance for alcohol with sobriety. It isn’t the same thing. Blood-alcohol level is a precise measure of alcohol content and the law doesn’t make allowance for frequent drinkers who may be better able to tolerate their booze.

If convicted of drunk driving, Mainers face heavy fines, loss of their driver’s licenses and possible jail time. Worse, if someone drives drunk and causes an accident, they could be criminally and morally responsible for the injury or death of another human being.

It makes sense to do the math before tipping back a glass. Call it an exercise in self-preservation.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com

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