New BC Drunk Driving Laws-How many drinks to blow over the limit?

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ILSTV does not condone drinking and driving, but with changes to BC’s drinking and driving laws, it’s critical to understand how drinking affects your blood alcohol concentration or BAC. Many of you that drink socially are probably wondering how many standard drinks, and by standard we mean 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine and 1.5 ounces of hard liquor, can you consume and not go over the 50mg% or .05 limit. And what happens if you continue to drink? Does your BAC rise, fall or stay the same?

Now remember, everyone’s metabolism is different and these are only general guidelines. For example, let’s look at a 180lb male. This male has no health issues and has the ability to properly metabolize alcohol.

If that male has three drinks in one hour his peak BAC will be at .05, with the peak occurring at about 40 minutes after he stops drinking. And of course this may change depending on how much food is eaten to help absorb the alcohol. That being said, this male would limit himself to two drinks in the first hour to avoid passing the limit and build in a bit of a safety factor. His body will eliminate about .015 from his BAC each hour. What this means is this person can keep his BAC at the level of two drinks by drinking one drink each hour after the first hour (of two drinks). Any more than that and it will rise and if he drinks less, it will fall.

Let’s have a look at a woman who is 120lbs and has a glass of wine. Her BAC will be at .027. So it’s probably in her best interest to stop. If she does continue drinking she must drink less than one glass of wine each hour after the first hour to remain at the (.027) level.

Remember, there is going to be variability in everyone’s ability to absorb and eliminate alcohol, so doing these calculations can be problematic. A word of advice would be to stop after one or two depending on your size and sex. Remember, this is not a scientific study and ILSTV does not condone drinking and driving.

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