Under the Influence

It has been estimated that between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., one out of every ten drivers is intoxicated. Researchers report that more than one-third of these drivers has been drinking at someone else's home. Nearly 50 percent of the drivers arrested for driving under the influence are social to moderate drinkers.

Don't think that it won't happen to you. In your lifetime, there is a 50-50 chance that you'll be involved in an alcohol-related crash.

However, combining alcohol with other drugs usually multiplies the effects of both and can have a disastrous effect on your ability to drive. One drink taken when you are taking another drug — even an aspirin, simple allergy or cold remedy — could have the same effect on your driving ability as having several alcoholic beverages.

Almost any drug can reduce your ability to drive safely. It is not just illegal drugs that cause problems. Many over-the-counter medications and prescription drugs for headaches, hay fever, cold, allergies or nervous conditions can cause drowsiness and dizziness. This includes syrups, drops, sprays, pills and tablets. They often affect driver alertness and slow reaction time.

Read the label before taking any drug or medicine. Look for warnings about side effects. If you're uncertain about the effects of a drug, ask your pharmacist or doctor for advice.

Remember that, while the effects may vary among users, no drug is harmless. Taking any drug against medical direction or without a doctor's supervision is dangerous.

Stimulants

Stimulants, such as amphetamines, speed up the Central Nervous System (CNS), while depressants, such as tranquilizers or alcohol, slow it down. They can make the user feel more alert and self-confident. However, for the driver, these effects result in a false sense of security. Because amphetamines can keep a driver from realizing how tired he or she is, the driver may feel extremely confident at a time when skill levels are actually reduced. Amphetamines also can cause loss of coordination, overexcitability and lack of concentration, especially when their effect is going down. After the effect of amphetamines is over, the driver can even be depressed.

Cocaine (including “crack” and “rock”) is a stimulant and a narcotic. Cocaine impairs judgement, distorts reality and hinders concentration. In small doses it may cause feelings of joy and delight. Moderate doses may produce violent stimulation, hallucinations and paranoia. Cocaine can affect a driver’s coordination, and produce a false sense of alertness. Cocaine also hinders vision and may depress breathing function. Users reported increased sensitivity to light, difficulty focusing and blurred vision. The drug is powerfully addictive and can cause serious and painful withdrawal symptoms.

Narcotics

Narcotics (morphine, opium, and heroin) depress the central nervous system, and produce a wide range of unwanted side effects. The user can become incoherent and dizzy and experience nausea and vomiting.

Narcotics can lead to both physical and mental drug dependence. Drivers using narcotics may experience a wide range of effects, from hallucinations and confusion to drowsiness and slowed reaction time. As with cocaine, when the supply is cut off, the user usually develops serious and painful withdrawal symptoms.

Hallucinogens

LSD, STP, and peyote primarily affect the central nervous system but also change the user’s mood and behavior.

Inhalants are fumes of paint, markers, nail polish, aerosol sprays, gasoline, some glues, as well as ethyl chlorate (easy evaporating liquid that is used in sports medicine as a anesthesia) may cause dizziness, lightheadedness, and lack of coordination as well as hallucinations.

Breathing such fumes — often called "huffing" — distorts perception and impairs judgment. Using inhalants is extremely dangerous: they can permanently destroy the brain, kidneys, and liver. They can cause unconsciousness and heart failure, anaphylaxis and respiratory arrest leading to the user’s death — even with one use.

Marijuana (“pot,” “grass,” “weed”) is a mild hallucinogen. Research has shown that marijuana impairs concentration and judgment. Among other things, marijuana affects how you experience time (for example, how much time you have to maneuver before crashing into that tree). Users report they can concentrate on one object at a time, ignoring all other objects. Alcohol can do the same thing, but hallucinogens require much lower blood levels to affect your judgment.

In a survey, infrequent and former users reported that marijuana decreases their ability to judge time and slowed their reaction time. Chronic users, however, indicated they were less affected than other users. In the same study, 65% of infrequent and former users reported that marijuana decreases their ability to keep a vehicle under control. 18% of chronic users reported the same problem. 75% of infrequent and former users and 48% of chronic users felt that their ability to respond to an emergency situation was impaired.

Hallucinogens can make a person see and/or hear imaginary or distorted sights and sounds. Would you want to plough into an oncoming driver because you swerved to avoid an imaginary cliff or a talking cat in your path?

Depressants

Barbiturates (Phenobarbital, Nembutal, Seconal, “downers,” “yellows,” and “yellow jackets”) are usually prescribed as sleep medicines. They may make thinking difficult and cause depression, especially when combined with alcohol. They can also cause excitability, blurred vision, reality distortion, drowsiness and even loss of consciousness. The skills important to safe driving — alertness, attention to details, judgement, and reaction time — may be affected for several hours after taking the barbiturates.

Tranquilizers (Valium, Librium) also slow down the central nervous system. They are used to control emotional problems: excitement, hysteria, anxiety, and phobia. Tranquilizers can slow reaction time, impair coordination, hinder judgement, decrease muscular tone, and affect sight.

Alcohol (Whiskey, Brandy, Cognac, Vodka, Rum, Tequila, Gin, Wine, Beer,etc.) has killed and continues to kill millions. Cirrhosis of the liver occurs after prolonged drinking, and was the principle cause of alcohol-related death untill Henry Ford established modern automobile production. Since then, alcohol-related crashes have become a part of life.

Compared to sober drivers, for a 150-pound male over 21 years old, the odds of being involved in a crash of any kind are:

• 1 to 2 drinks (1 drink = ½ once of pure alcohol): chances nearly double.
• 3 to 4 drinks: chances increase three to seven times.
• 5 to 6 drinks: chances increase 13 to 20 times.
• 7 to 8 drinks: chances increase 55 to 85 times.

Researchers indicate that alcohol’s effect on females tends to be stronger and lasts longer. Thus, an average woman may be completely drunk after consumption of a comparatively smaller dose of alcohol.

Drug interaction

Combining two or more drugs together can magnify their effects significantly, making a deadly mix for a driver.

Keep away from alcohol while using antihistamines – over-the-counter or prescription drugs used against allergy. If you use these medicines, even a small amount of alcohol can make you drunk. Combining narcotics with tranquilizers can suppress human breathing, and may cause death. This type of drug interaction is called synergism.

Alcohol and Your Body

Problem drinking as a disease is the number three killer in the United States, behind heart disease and cancer. Ironically, drinking can be the cause of both heart disease and cancer. Women who drink alcohol excessively have a breast cancer rate 1.5 to 2 times greater than women who either never drink, or drink moderately.

The effects of alcohol at varying stages of intoxication:

• At a 0.05% Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) judgment becomes impaired.
• At 0.15% your lack of coordination in motor skills becomes apparent.
• 0.18% is the average BAC found when testing impaired drivers.
• At 0.4 to 0.5% BAC, you run the risk of severe alcohol poisoning, certainly unconsciousness, and even death.

Below are some general facts about alcohol.

You lose your judgment when you drink alcohol or use drugs. Loss of judgment, or good sense, affects how you react to sound, what you see, and how you perceive the speed of other vehicles around you. Even a single drink can affect a person's driving. Two drinks in an hour can make anyone an unsafe driver. No one can drink more than their limit and drive safely, no matter how much driving experience he or she has had.

If a person has had more than one drink an hour, one hour of "sobering" time should be allowed for each extra drink. Better still, someone who has not been drinking should drive.

People drink alcohol to put themselves into a carefree, childlike mood. The problem is that you cannot turn it off when you drive home. Since alcohol is a depressant, it is a little strange that it is used by so many people to try to cheer themselves up.

Alcohol first impairs judgment and inhibition. Next it impairs the brain center and senses, including taste, smell, sight and hearing. Then your motor skills go: your coordination and ability to control the movement of your hands, fingers, feet and legs deteriorates in rapid succession, leaving you incapable of effectively perceiving your surroundings or of maneuvering your vehicle safely.

Because alcohol is directly absorbed into your bloodstream, it does not need to be digested before its effects are felt. It can quickly and effectively cripple your ability to function, regardless of what "precautions" you may take.

Having food in your stomach keeps alcohol from being absorbed as quickly: the alcohol absorption process is slowed down by the food being digested. But the effects of alcohol will then quickly push their way into your system as soon as your stomach slows its digestion.

It takes about two hours for alcohol to work its way out of your body, but only about five minutes to get into your brain cells.

Conviction rates are as high as 96% if the police present videotaped evidence of the driver's drunken behavior.

On an average night, one out of fifty drivers is drunk. Over the weekend that number jumps to ten percent of all drivers. In certain concentrated areas, as many as 25% of all drivers could be intoxicated.

Out of two thousand drunk drivers, only one will be pulled over. Half of those will get suspended sentences. Therefore only one out of 4,000 drunk drivers is actually convicted of DUI and taken off the road, even for a little while.

Homicide by drunk driving has become America's only socially-acceptable crime of violence.

Drugs and Driving

Much of what has been said about alcohol also applies to drugs (both legally prescribed medicines and illegal drugs). Virginia's drunk driving law is also a drug driving law since it refers to "driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs."

The law does not have to say which drugs are involved. Many medicines can affect the way one drives. Alcohol can enhance some of the dangerous side-effects of many drugs, even those that are prescribed by your physician or purchased over the counter. It is important that you check with your physician or pharmacist before driving under the influence of any medication.

Almost any drug can affect a person's driving ability. This is true of prescription drugs, drugs you can buy over the counter, and illegal drugs. Some facts:

• Most drugs taken for headaches, colds, hay fever, allergy, or to calm nerves can make a person drowsy and affect their driving.
• Taking any drug can affect driving. Medicines taken together or used with alcohol can be dangerous. Drivers should ask their physician or pharmacist about how any medicine may affect their driving.
• Many drugs have unexpected effects when taken with alcohol. Drugs and alcohol should never be used at the same time.
• Pep pills, "uppers," and diet pills can make a driver more alert for a short time, but later they can cause a person to be nervous, dizzy, and not able to concentrate. They can also affect vision.

Make sure you read the label and know the effects of any drug you use. If it is a common drug, read the label. Any drug that "may cause drowsiness or dizziness" is one you should not take before driving.

Any drug (and the law does not distinguish between prescription, over the counter, and illegal drugs) that impairs your driving is illegal. If an officer suspects that you are under the influence of drugs, the officer can require that you take a blood or urine test.

Persons refusing these tests will be subject to the same license suspensions and revocations as for alcohol test refusals. Anyone convicted of manufacturing, possessing or selling illegal drugs will be subject to a six-month license suspension.

Blood Alcohol Testing

Police no longer have to offer you the option of a urine test of your Blood Alcohol Concentration, and will not offer you a urine test unless both blood and breath tests are unavailable or unusable for some reason.