Boston OUI/DUI Defense Blog

Late on a Friday or Saturday night, many people in Boston keep an eye out for drunk drivers. While Massachusetts is perhaps no worse than other states when it comes to drunk driving, it is nonetheless a problem that needs to be addressed. CNN estimates that drunk drivers kill one person every 51 minutes — often, including themselves.

But, will stricter policies put an end to drunk driving? That may depend on the policies proposed. One proposal in 2016 called for lowering the legal blood alcohol limit from 0.08 to 0.05 percent. The National Transportation Safety Board proposed the change and even suggested going lower than the 0.05 to deter people from buzzed driving. The line of argument was that a low number meant that people could no longer negotiate with themselves about whether or not they could drink one or two more glasses.

The common representation of an arrest for drunk driving arrest in Boston is a person standing on the side of the road blowing into a handheld breath testing device. If you happen to find yourself in such a position, then you may be contemplating why it is that law enforcement officers use a measurement of your breath to determine what your blood alcohol content is. This is a question often posed to the team here working for Attorney John B. Seed by those facing DUI charges. The answer requires an understanding of how alcohol makes its way through your body. 

The actual name for the type of alcohol found in drinks is ethanol. This is a water-soluble compound, which is important in explaining how ethanol ends up in your blood. According to information shared by the Alcohol Pharmacology Education Partnership, when you ingest ethanol. its molecules are able to pass through the layer of epithelial cells that line your stomach and small intestine via a process known as passive diffusion (which occurs much easier with water-soluble compounds). From there, the ethanol molecules pass into capillaries that surround the organs of your gastrointestinal tract and enter the bloodstream. 

There are many ways in which drunk driving allegations can turn someone’s life upside down. Some people may suffer from a career point of view, while others may have a hard time with financial penalties and even time behind bars. Some people are in a unique position, such as those who are attending college, and there are various ways in which DUI charges can disrupt a college student’s studies. Moreover, these allegations may affect a prospective college student as well, so it is crucial to handle these cases with a great deal of care.

If you are currently attending college, drunk driving charges could be devastating with respect to your studies. Whether you are a young adult who was pressured to get behind the wheel while drunk by your peers or you are an older college student who was charged with DUI over a one-off incident, a drunk driving case can be very disruptive. For example, you may lose your driving privileges, which could make it hard for you to get to class. Or, the extreme stress associated with the case may interfere with your ability to study for exams and write papers well. These are just a couple of ways in which DUI charges can throw off someone’s college performance.

Maybe you are 100 percent sober. Perhaps you've consumed a couple of alcoholic beverages over the last few hours. Or maybe you're borderline drunk. Regardless of your situation, your nerves are sure to kick in as you approach a sobriety checkpoint.

You hope to quickly make your way through the checkpoint, but there's no way of knowing exactly what will happen. This is particularly true if you have alcohol in your system.