If you believe that you’re over the legal limit and too impaired to drive, you may be looking for a way to get sober quickly. You still need to drive your car home that night, and you don’t want to leave it and have to come back and get it the next day. You just want to get sober enough to avoid an accident or a drunk driving arrest.
If you ask your friends for advice, they may repeat some common ideas that people use. Maybe they’ll tell you that you just need to go get a cup of coffee. Maybe they’ll say that it’s time to drink a big glass of water before you get in the car. Perhaps they’ll even take you to get a large meal. But is any of this actually going to help?
Only time impacts your BAC
What you’re trying to do is reduce your blood alcohol concentration (BAC). But you can’t do that with anything other than time. Your BAC naturally drops at a rate of 0.015% per hour. There can be some variance between individuals, but it’s usually right around that number. Therefore, if you had a BAC of 0.09, it would take six hours to get back to 0.00%.
In that sense, going to get a meal or a cup of coffee can help because it does take time. Your blood alcohol concentration will be going down as long as you are not still drinking. But there’s nothing you can do to speed up the rate at which your body metabolizes alcohol, so you just have to wait.
Have you found yourself facing drunk driving charges when you perhaps thought you were sober enough to drive? Be sure you know about all of your criminal defense options.