When going out to dinner or the bar, a common question that people in Colorado have is just how much they can drink without worrying. While the police measure blood alcohol concentration, people focus more on the amount of drinks consumed, as that’s far easier to think about during their time at the bar or restaurant.
There is no hard and fast rule about how many drinks you can have before you’ll be over the limit. There are too many factors in play, such as your size. For instance, a woman who weighs just 90 pounds could be over the limit after two drinks, while a man who weighs 250 pounds may still be under after having the same amount of alcohol.
One of the other issues is that not all drinks are the same. Usually, one drink counts as a single shot of liquor, five ounces of wine or a full glass of beer. Typical liquor, like bourbon or vodka, tends to be about 40 percent alcohol. Wine comes in at about 13 percent, while beer comes in at 4 to 6 percent.
Beer shows a lot of variety, though, as many macro-brew beers are about 4 percent and craft beers can get up into the 10 percent range. This is important because the amount of alcohol — not the amount of liquid — is what really counts. If there is as much alcohol in a craft beer as there would be in two standard beers, people must take this into consideration.
As you can see, figuring out how much you can safely drink can be rather confusing. If you’ve been charged with a DUI, make sure that you know what options you have.
Source: About Health, “Why You Should Never Drink and Drive,” Buddy T., accessed May. 04, 2015
