Sunday, January 10, 2010

Drinking alcohol without getting drunk?

In DUI courtrooms around the country, and certainly here in the Chicago area, police officers regularly testify that they "smelled the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from the suspect's breath". This almost always leads to a DUI arrest in Illinois and elsewhere. Great defense attorneys know well how to deal with such insignificant "evidence" and do so effectively.

But what happens when the "odor of an alcoholic beverage" doesn't mean the odor of an intoxicating substance? What if there's a product that has that odor, the taste, the feel - but not the effect?

It seems that question may come along soon. A drug researcher in jolly old England is looking into the possibility of dealing with the effect of alcohol that gives rise to DUI - impairment.

It seems officers in the future may need to think more about how heavily they rely on odor (they should already do so). What are your thoughts on the topic?

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