If you need to drive but you’ve been drinking, you may look for ways to decrease your blood alcohol concentration (BAC). This is the number that shows up if you take a breath test administered by the police department. The legal limit is a BAC of 0.08% for most drivers – although commercial drivers and underage drivers have lower limits. You may be interested in getting your BAC down below that level so that you won’t fail a breath test.
One common tactic that people will use is to drink a cup of coffee. They believe that this can sober them up. But does it actually work?
How you really get sober
This tactic doesn’t work and shouldn’t be tried. Coffee can wake you up. Caffeine can make you feel alert and attentive. This certainly may make you feel like you’re not as impaired as you were before and that it’s safe to drive.
But your blood alcohol concentration doesn’t go down because you have consumed caffeine. That just takes time. Every hour, your BAC drops by about 0.015%. The only solution to lowering that number is waiting for it to go down.
People think coffee makes them sober, but it’s really just caffeine making them feel alert. This can trick them into thinking that it is safe and legal for them to drive when they would still fail a test of breath test and run the risk of being arrested on drunk driving allegations. Plus, it’s also possible to get arrested if your BAC is under the legal limit but the officer still feels you are impaired.
If you find yourself facing criminal allegations, take the time to carefully look into your defense options.