Can I Drink Two Pints Of Alcohol And Drive?

Will two pints of beer put you over the limit? Photo credit: Simon Cocks, Flickr. 

Question: So I’m going to play poker tonight. Let’s say I arrive at 9 p.m., drink two cans of cider, and leave around midnight. Would I likely be over the limit?

Answer: Drinking and driving is extremely dangerous. If you’ve had one too many and somehow manage to sneak past the highway patrol, your actions may lead to an accident that causes physical injury or death. Yet, in spite of these cold, hard facts, we often find ourselves out for a night on the town wondering if it’s OK to have just one more drink before we hit the road.

“In the United States, it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol content over .08,” says Erin Holmes, director of traffic safety at the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility. “The .08 BAC per se limit is based on more than three decades of scientific research.” That research reveals that once drivers reach a level of .08, critical driving skills, including reaction time, the ability to perform divided-attention tasks, and judgment of speed and distance, become dangerously compromised.

But how many drinks does it actually take to reach the .08 level? First, we have to consider the exact definition of a “drink.” Holmes reveals that the federal government’s official nutrition policy defines a standard drink of alcohol as 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits, 12 ounces of regular beer, or 5 ounces of wine. Therefore, a pint of beer (16 ounces) is a little more than one drink. And two pints is a little more than 2.5 drinks.