When you and your friends are out at your favorite bar, it can be hard to be the only one who is not drinking. Many people try to calculate how much they can drink before they are over the legal driving limit of .08. While this may work in theory, there are many factors that can affect how your body will handle the alcohol you consume. The best advice to avoiding a misdemeanor DUI arrest in Arizona is to NOT drink and drive.
When trying to calculate how much you can drink before you hit the .08 limit, you must first consider the size of the drink you are consuming and its alcohol content. Beer is the easiest to calculate, since they tend to adhere to the alcohol percentage seen on the label. However, wine and liquor are more difficult to calculate exactly. The amount of alcohol contained in each serving can vary greatly depending on the person mixing them. To be on the safe side, stick with bottled or canned beer so that you know the exact amount of alcohol you are drinking.
Gender and body weight are two more major factors to consider when you are trying to calculate your alcohol limit. Men and women process alcohol differently regardless of size due to differences in body composition. Women also tend to have less water in their bodies, which makes their blood alcohol levels rise faster. As a general rule, a person who weighs 200 pounds will require more alcohol to reach .08 than someone who weighs 150 pounds. This calculation must be based on the amount of lean body mass the person has, not the amount of fat.
Time also plays a role when it comes to your blood alcohol content. If you drink three glasses of wine within an hour, your blood alcohol level would be higher than if you drank those three glasses over a period of four hours. Your liver is only capable of processing an average of one alcoholic beverage per hour. The exact time varies from person to person. Time is an important thing to consider when you are trying to figure out how many drinks you can have before you reach a .08 blood alcohol level.
You will also need to take food into consideration. If you drink on an empty stomach, your blood alcohol level will rise much more quickly than if you ate food along with the alcoholic beverage. It can be hard to estimate how much food is needed to stay within the legal limits.
A DWI or DUI is not something you want to have to deal with, so you will need to learn how your body reacts to alcohol in certain situations or just stay sober if you are going to drive.
If you have been arrested or suspected of a DUI in Arizona, please give our offices a call at (602) 307-0808 to schedule a free consultation with an experienced DUI attorney. If you would like to send us an email, please use our secure and confidential form.
For more information about the different types of DUI in Arizona use these links: DUI/DWI/Extreme, Aggravated DUI, DUI Drugs
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