How Many Drinks Until .08?

No Chart or Rule of Thumb Can Accurately Predict Alcohol Level

In Texas, a person can be convicted of DWI if they have an alcohol concentration of .08 in their blood, breath, or urine while driving. Most often a DWI breath test is used to make this determination.

There is no way to predict with precision how many drinks it takes for any individual to have an actual alcohol level of .08 in their body. The amount of time over which the drinking took place, the strength of each drink, the amount of food in someone's stomach at the time, the individual's metabolism, the amount of body fat or muscle in that person, whether the person is ill or if the stomach is upset for any reason, the person's gender, body weight, and even race can all effect how many drinks it takes to get to true .08 blood-alcohol level. A small female with high body fat and an empty stomach could become .08 with only 3 or 4 drinks in an hour. A large male with lean muscle weight and food in his stomach could drink 5-6 drinks in an hour and not be over .08. No chart or rule of thumb can accurately predict alcohol level, as every person is different and will process alcohol at their unique rate.

Will tolerance effect my alcohol level?

Tolerance has no effect on the rate at which someone's alcohol level will climb. An older, experienced drinker will not get to .08 any slower than a young lightweight drinker. How quickly they are impaired will likely be different, but their actual body alcohol level will not be affected by their experience with alcohol. The only exception being if the older drinker has suffered liver damage, in such case, his alcohol level would be HIGHER than the young drinker because his body would have a diminished ability to eliminate the alcohol as it is consumed.

Drinking over time

As one drinks over the course of an evening, alcohol will generally accumulate if even just one drink per hour is consumed. Most people will metabolize only about ¾ drink per hour. So if an "average" person consumes one drink per hour over a four hour party, at the end of the fourth hour she will have about two total drinks in her system: the last drink that is not yet metabolized, and about ¼ of each of the prior drinks will still be in the system. So in theory, an "average" person could get to about .08 by drinking only one standard drink per hour for about 12 hours.

Ok, ok. So you ask, "Who only drinks one drink per hour?" So at three standard drinks per hour, how long until the "average" person is looking at a .08? Probably a little less than 2 hours. Stay at the club for thee hours and have two drinks per hour while you're there… Fail the breath test? Probably so.

Contact Jim Medley about your Houston DWI today!