By Dale Gribow
The quick answer is NO, not if you are going to drive home. St Patrick’s Day is no different from any other day and two drinks will put most of my CV Weekly readers over the .08 limit. Because most of us are celebrating on St Patrick’s Day we are not paying attention to the number or amount of alcohol we are consuming.
We must all understand is that it is not the number of drinks but the amount of alcohol in each drink. A drink is 12 oz. of beer and about 1 oz. of hard alcohol or 4 oz. of wine. The problem is that many restaurants pour a 6-8 oz. pour of wine and a 2 or more oz pour of alcohol. Thus when you have two 6 oz. glasses of wine with dinner you have really had 3 drinks…and if it was an 8 oz pour of wine your 2 drinks will equal 4 drinks. Some restaurants and bars provide a 3 oz. pour of hard alcohol. That equals 3 drinks… not one.
I recently had a 21 year old kid in my office with his mom who swore he only had 1 drink. I told him his high reading was impossible from one drink. Then I asked if he used a red Costco 16 oz. cup and filled it 2/3 of the way with alcohol and topped it off with OJ……..he responded yes. If he used a 16 oz. cup that was 2/3 full, he was consuming 12 oz. of alcohol which equals 12 drinks. We all forget when bartenders top off our wine when they are half way through.
Alcohol is often not the only issue when one is taking certain prescriptive drugs. Alcohol and many prescriptive drugs just do not mix. When your vial label warns you to not operate heavy machinery/equipment they mean cars. We should probably revise the law to mandate a pharmacy have a label warning that the consumer should not operate a car/vehicle after drinking and/or taking a pill that has that precautionary warning.
Many people think that heavy machinery/equipment is a tractor. My CV Weekly readers need to understand there is something called Potentiation. This occurs when the RX pills, such as anti-depressants and diet pills with this warning, are then combined with an alcoholic drink. The combination could a driver to be as much under the influence as if several drinks were consumed. Illegal drugs like MJ or Cocaine are more dangerous because some MJ today is up to 13 times stronger than it was in the 60’s and 70’s, but the public does not realize this.
My conclusion for St Patrick’s Day is DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE, CALL A TAXI………IT IS A LOT CHEAPER THAN HIRING ME!
Dale Gribow has been “Rated” TOP LAWYER by Palm Springs Life Magazine from 2011-2014 and has a Superb AVVO Legal Rating by his fellow attorneys. Dale Gribow has been Man of the Year 7 times including the City of Palm Desert and the City of Hope and Dale Gribow Day has been declared 4 times. He is the only attorney appointed in December 2013 to the Coachella Valley Association of Government’s Public Safety Ad Hoc Blue Ribbon Committee addressing Drunk Driving. This group consists of the police chiefs from every city and the mayor of each city as well as the Sheriff of Riverside County and the head of the CHP and Border Patrol. In addition Gribow is the only attorney asked to be part of the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Health Matters Committee addressing Drunk Driving. Gribow is also one of the founders of Shutdown Drunk Driving formed upon the death of his client who was killed by a drunk driver while jogging recently.
DMV Warning.
Dale S. Gribow
Attorney at Law
74-923 Highway 111, #206
Indian Wells, California 92210
760-837-7500
Dale@DaleGribowLaw.com
www.DaleGribowLaw.com
