Imagine that you know you need to drive home, but you’re not sober enough to do so. Maybe you just meant to have one drink while you watched the game with your friends, but one turned into two and that turned into a handful. And now you believe that you’re over the legal limit.
Someone may tell you that there are tricks you can use to sober up quickly so that you can drive home without the risk of being pulled over. An example of this could be taking a cold shower or eating a meal. Some people may suggest drinking water or drinking a hot cup of coffee. Can you use these little tricks to quickly get sober and drive home without worrying about getting arrested?
The rate of alcohol metabolism
The reality is that these tricks won’t work. Nothing is going to make you sober any faster. The reason for this is that your body metabolizes alcohol at a rate that, for most people, is going to be right around 0.015% per hour. That rate doesn’t change even if you drink coffee, eat a meal or take a shower. As such, the only thing that will make you sober is time itself.
And it may be more time than you realize. At the rate noted above, it would take six hours to go from a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.09%, all the way back down to zero. It’s very possible for a person to have a positive blood alcohol concentration for far longer than they may realize.
In fact, this is one of the reasons that some people get arrested on drunk driving charges “the next morning.” It’s very common for people to assume that it’s always safe to drive the next day and that sleeping sobers them up enough. But, depending on how high their blood alcohol concentration was before they went to sleep and when they had their last drink, that very well may not be true.
Your defense options
Are you facing charges that could lead to fines, jail time, the loss of a license and other serious ramifications because you mistakenly thought you were sober “enough” but you weren’t? If so, it’s critical that you understand all of the legal options at your disposal. Seek legal guidance accordingly.