Units to centilitres – but what does it mean?

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday the party announced that it would scrap the unit measure of alcohol displayed on bottles and cans to one of centilitres. On first hearing I was unsure whether this would really make much difference because as it happens a unit is a centilitre. However, as I heard more I can now see that it does make sense calling the measure what it is and it seems to bring alcohol in to line with the other measures we use for food stuffs around salt, sugar and calories.

However for me the real challenge is what we do about relating units of alcohol to milligrams of alcohol once it gets into the blood stream. It is odd that in most other aspects of law to do with motoring you are clearly able to establish whether you are breaking the law; speeding, tyre treads etc. Indeed, this applies to many other aspects of the legal system away from motoring. But when it comes to drink driving it is absolutely impossible to judge, when you get behind the wheel of a car whether you have gone over the driving limit. It may well be that one and a half glasses of a relatively low alcohol wine (say 11% ABV) will not take you over the limit but if you drank a much higher ABV wine (say 13.5%, which is very common) then you ‘might’ be. I say ‘might’ because who knows, it seems so much depends on when you drank it and whether you had eaten etc etc.

You can of course not drink anything and that is a way of not having this moral hazard but if you do enjoy a glass of wine, or a pint, the problem is when do you stop and when does the alcohol get out of your bloodstream.

Now, before anyone jumps on me from a great height I am not advocating that we change the drink driving laws or pretending that drunk drivers are anything other than a serious danger on our roads. All I ask is that when we think about units of alcohol and there conversion to centilitres we also look at what system we might be able to introduce that might better inform people as to their ability to drive because relating more closely what you can drink and the effects that drink will have on your overall ability to perform a task, such as driving, would I think be socially beneficial. We know that any alcohol related crime is a menace and it might just be that this simple step could move to ease the problem. Maybe it is not possible but I am not designing the system.