New York woman beats DUI charge by proving her body is a brewery

[biostem]

More to the point, if this woman has a condition which basically causes her body to produce alcohol, then she shouldn't be permitted to drive if said condition causes her to become impaired. What are the laws regarding, for instance, someone who has epilepsy, or any condition that could "flare up" at any time, causing a loss or impairment to normal function?

Epilepsy depends on the state. Typically you are required to go seizure free for an extended period of time. The time period is what varies. At least three months, the longest I've seen is six. Some states require a doctor's release on top of it. Basically, you've demonstrated your healthy record.

Thanks for the info. So basically, the approach I'd take is to offer to drop the charges provided she goes for testing to determine if or how her condition can be controlled, or that she refrain from driving. Perhaps they could set her up with a breathalizer or something, until a more permanent solution is reached, (with some sort of documentation describing her condition, in case she gets pulled over again).

[Simon_Jester]

The original point of the "she passed the driver's test" argument is that when she took the test, she was functionally capable enough to drive without any sign of impairment. And presumably her driver's ed instructors didn't notice any unusual impairment either.

The argument being that if she was driving well enough for the state to license her while under this condition, then she is presumably capable of driving well enough most of the time.

The two counterarguments to this are:
1) Just because she can drive well enough to pass a test once, doesn't mean she's driving that well all the time or even most of the time. She may have good days and bad days.
2) Her condition may be getting worse over time, as many medical conditions do.

[jwl]

Of course she shouldn't be penalised for having an unknown medical condition.

However, the whole "resistance to alcohol" thing you could equally be used to argue for reducing the limit for people who just drink alcohol every day.

[Cykeisme]

On a tangentially related note, how does resistance to alcohol actually work?
Do you get a higher resistance due to your body (liver?) being able to lower your blood alcohol more quickly, or is it due to your brain becoming less affected for a given blood alcohol concentration?
If it's the latter, I'm assuming she should be pretty resistant already?


Also, agreed that even if she passed her driving test some time ago, that may be before she developed the condition, or that it was less severe then (and has worsened since).
I mean, if a person became legally blind at age 70, they shouldn't be allowed to drive anymore, even if they passed their driving test some time ago.

We've used epilepsy, legal blindness, and diabetes-invoked low blood sugar as examples of other medical conditions that make it unsafe for a person to drive, and it is my opinion that this is no different.
So she'd probably need to keep her condition under control with medication (fluconazole, as bilateralrope pointed out) and/or a strict diet plan to be allowed to keep her license, or just not be allowed to drive anymore.

[bilateralrope]

On a tangentially related note, how does resistance to alcohol actually work?
Do you get a higher resistance due to your body (liver?) being able to lower your blood alcohol more quickly, or is it due to your brain becoming less affected for a given blood alcohol concentration?
If it's the latter, I'm assuming she should be pretty resistant already?

Better question: Does the resistance really exist ?
How many drunk drives have you heard of who think themselves sober enough to drive when they are really too drunk ?
How many of them can go for years without getting into trouble ?
They don't have any resistance to alcohol. Just arrogance and luck.

She would probably be in a similar position. She thinks herself safe to drive, due to ignorance instead of arrogance. She was lucky enough that she didn't look drunk at any time that anyone who cared was observing her. Lucky enough to not get into an accident. Lucky that the cops caught her before she got into an accident.

People having drunk enough alcohol to be over the limit, while not presenting any symptoms, is nothing new. Even if I ignore the fact that in New Zealand, drivers under 20 aren't allowed to have any alcohol in their system while driving.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

That's an oversimplification. Resistance does exist, it's just not going to magic away all symptoms and let the drunk function as if they were sober, although many of them believe they can. However, an accomplished drinker will not be anywhere near as impaired from the same number or drinks or even the same BAC as someone who rarely imbibes. About 10 years ago, I had a third (admittedly large) glass of wine at a wedding and ended up hiding in my hotel room for the rest of the reception because I didn't feel I could carry a conversation. These days I could put away that same amount and only feel a buzz.

We make our DUI laws strict because it's such a dangerous activity, but the truth is that .08 BAC isn't a magic number. Some people are a major road hazard with less than that, and others are relatively safe with far more. The trouble is you can't you can't take them at their word and it's not an easy thing to test accurately.

Personally, I just plan a way to get home without driving if I know I'll be imbibing, but I live in a dense city where that's easy to do. Worst case scenario, I can walk from one end of town to the other in 2 hours.

[jwl]

On a tangentially related note, how does resistance to alcohol actually work?
Do you get a higher resistance due to your body (liver?) being able to lower your blood alcohol more quickly, or is it due to your brain becoming less affected for a given blood alcohol concentration?
If it's the latter, I'm assuming she should be pretty resistant already?

I would expect it's the latter, because people who have been drinking longer usually take just as long to become fully sober as everyone else, it just doesn't affect them as much.

[Elheru Aran]

Put it another way... resistance to alcohol, for a lot of people (I won't say all because there's enough biochemical variation between people for this answer to be wrong for some percentage) is similar to a resistance to caffeine. You start out drinking one cup of coffee a day, before long it's not going to have much effect on you. Go from that to drinking 10 cups of coffee a day, there will be a definite change in your body for a while... and then, if your body is able to absorb that much caffeine, you won't notice it after a while and it'll seem 'normal'. I believe (I am not an expert) that it's similar to that for many people with alcohol, except that of course it tends to impair the body rather more than coffee does.