Why Do Women Get High BAC DWIs?

In my Ithaca DWI practice I represent the full gamut of people. Everyone from the college crowd of professors and students to local cooks and tourists on holiday. DWI is a very typical first offense misdemeanor for the large majority of people. Many people are amazed when the police tell them their BAC level. They wonder how their BAC (blood alcohol concentration) levels got to be so high.

The Differences Between Men and Women are more than Mental

Women and men are very different in number of ways. I can tell you after 25 years of marriage I'm still scratching my head most days trying to figure out what I did that was wrong? That is for another day, and perhaps another blog post but today I seek a clearer answer to the men DWI versus women DWI BAC level anomaly.

Men DWI vs. Women DWI

Women can drink the same as men but will experience a higher BAC level because:

1. Alcohol is Hydro-philic (it loves water) that is why alcohol mixes well with juice, water, and soda. It is also why alcohol goes to the brain, organs, and muscle tissues of the body. The areas highest in water concentration. Alcohol does not accumulate in fat tissue (oil).

2. Women have a higher body fat percentage is why their muscle mass is smaller (generally) than men. So what alcohol they do consume will have a smaller volume of water to mix with and therefore a higher BAC (blood alcohol concentration) level.

3. Drink for drink men average .02 BAC/drink and women .035 BAC/drink

Three Drinks for a man is still around .06 BAC (so impairment but not intoxication)

versus

Three Drinks for a woman is around .11 BAC (intoxicated)

Remember what a standardized drink is:

12 oz. beer at 5%
5 oz. wine at 12%
1.5 oz. 80 proof at 40%
12 oz. cooler at 5%

Many beers are over 5% +, and many wines are 14% +

New York VTL 1192 (2) (A) (A) Aggravated DWI

Pound for pound women will get drunker faster, and with a higher BAC just based upon gender. 

In my DWI practice I have had many aggravated DWI (.18 or more) women clients who only had 6 drinks, while a man at that many drinks still only be a .12 or less.

Always consult with an attorney about any criminal or non-criminal charges you have pending to discuss your options and/or defenses.

I am certified in Field Sobriety and Breath Alcohol Testing, and an active member of the National College of DUI Defense (NCDD). My online materials include over 500 blog posts, dozens of articles, and over 500 informative videos on my youtube channel.

I have co-authored Strategies for Defending DWI Cases in New York, in both 2011 and 2013. These are West Thomson legal manuals on New York State DWI defense, and focus on the best practices for other lawyers handling a New York DWI case. I was selected by Super Lawyers as a Upstate New York 2013 Rising Star in DWI/DUI Defense based on my experience, contributions, and professional standing.

http://www.ithacadwi.com

newman.lawrence@gmail.com

607-229-5184

Reviews of Larry Newman:

http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/14850-ny-lawrence-newman-530905.html

Understanding Alcohol in Ithaca DWI Cases

Beer's Law

Beer Law #1 Beer before liquor...get drunk quicker.
Beer Law #2 Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
Beer Law #3 One beer, two beer, three beer, four
five beer, six beer, seven beer ... floor.


I have read many police reports, and often people stopped for a DWI are asked, "How many drinks have you had tonight?" Usually the answer is two. For some strange reason it is seen as an appropriate amount of consumption, as in, I only had two, or two is less than three but a little more than one. Two just makes sense.

"Drunk Words are Sober Thoughts"

So it would appear that two drinks would be a reasonable amount of alcohol most people would have with dinner or chatting with friends over a two to three hour time period. The problem lies in that after a stop and arrest for a DWI, and an eventual taking of the breath test, accurately called the chemical test, the breathalyzer, the Datamaster DMT in Ithaca, NY, the machine may read (display) a much higher number. They may have a BAC (blood alcohol concentration) of .12, .15, or even as high as .18, which by the way is an Aggravated DWI. Without more information about the night, their eating, their unique body mass, their weight, their alcohol consumption, as well as other factors I can not tell if the machine is accurate, there was operator error, or there was machine error.

Are all these people lying when they say they only had two drinks or are other factors at work?
Former President Bill Clinton most famously captured the essence of properly answering a hard question. When asked under oath whether he had sex with Monica Lewinsky he replied, "I did not have sex with that woman." He then went on to explain that his definition of sex, and the rest of the world's might be at odds.

Any question must not be answered until we define the words or the terms used in that question. Getting back to our drink question, first we must define what is a "Standard Drink."

So what makes a standard drink? 

I recently went out with friends and they each ordered martinis. Their huge martini glasses must have had four to five shots (pours) of gin each. Each of their Appletinis had the equivalent alcohol of 4-5 standard drinks. In essence, the two cocktails they drank, was as if they each had consumed 8 -10 beers or 8-10 glasses of wine in a two hour time period. Combined with the fact we only had appetizers, they were each easily in the .08 to .10 BAC range.

So when I look at a client's drink consumption to determine accuracy of the BAC in a DWI case I need to also look at type of drinks, size of drinks, ethanol concentrations of those drinks, and of course the individual's familiarity (yes generally people who are used to drinking process ethanol more efficiently) with alcohol consumption.

Regular drinkers develop more of a hormone called ADH (alcohol dehydrogenases) which breaks down ethanol into acetic acid (vinegar) which is why you literally get pickled with too much alcohol consumption. That is also why some ethic groups genetically (produce less ADH) and therefore do not have the ability to process ethanol as efficiently, and then get drunk more quickly. There are a host of other factors too numerous to go into in this short blog but in some DWI cases I use an special Excel program to compute an individual BAC at time of arrest.

The following are some standard ethanol concentrations:

Beer can range from 3-6% ethanol
Wine can range from 10-14% ethanol
Sherry can range from 18-20% ethanol
Whiskey can range from 40% ethanol

I need to discover or as I say uncover the "real" world consumption patterns. Real world patterns yield far more accurate and actual BAC determinations.

So the truth may be that my client only had TWO, but two what?

Always consult with an attorney about any criminal or non-criminal charges you have pending to discuss your options and/or defenses.

I am certified in Field Sobriety and Breath Alcohol Testing, and an active member of the National College of DUI Defense (NCDD). My online materials include over 500 blog posts, dozens of articles, and over 500 informative videos on my youtube channel.

I have co-authored Strategies for Defending DWI Cases in New York, in both 2011 and 2013. These are West Thomson legal manuals on New York State DWI defense, and focus on the best practices for other lawyers handling a New York DWI case. I was selected by Super Lawyers as a Upstate New York 2013 Rising Star in DWI/DUI Defense based on my experience, contributions, and professional standing.

http://www.ithacadwi.com

newman.lawrence@gmail.com

607-229-5184

Reviews of Larry Newman:

http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/14850-ny-lawrence-newman-530905.html