You meet with a friend about a business the two of you want to open. It’s a Friday evening, and you simply meet at their house for an hour or so to talk. The meeting goes well. As it wraps up, your friend asks if you want to have a drink to celebrate.
You initially turn down the offer, saying you have to drive, but your friend insists that it’s just one drink. You assume that will be fine and accept. Can you still drive safely, or are you risking an accident or a drunk driving arrest?
How much alcohol is in one drink?
It’s easy to assume that one drink will be fine, but it may contain more alcohol than you realize. Here are the alcohol contents usually found in some standard drink sizes:
- Hard alcohol (whiskey, rum, etc): 1.5 ounces at 40% alcohol
- Standard wine (merlot, pinot grigio, etc): 5 ounces at 12% alcohol
- Regular beer (lager, ale, etc): 12 ounces at 5% alcohol
There are many ways in which one drink can be far more than one drink. Say your friend pours you a glass of bourbon on the rocks but doesn’t measure it. Is it really 1.5 ounces? It’s very easy to accidentally double or even triple that drink. Or say you grab a craft beer. You know it’s 12 ounces, but is it really 5% alcohol? Many craft beers are 9% or 10%, and you even have some that get up to 11% or 12%. Your “one” beer may be as heavy as wine, and you’re drinking more than twice as much as you think.
What happens if a drink leads to a DUI?
If that one drink leads to a drunk driving arrest, you need to know what legal options you have. These charges can drastically impact your future. Working with an experienced attorney can help.