The time needed to react to situations rises. In Illinois, the BAC level is .08. This means that the blood alcohol level needed to be arrested for drunken driving has to be .08 or higher. .
At a BAC of .10 percent, the reaction time increases even more, and a person's movements become noticeably clumsy. At an alcohol concentration of .20 percent, the part of the brain that controls movements is almost shut down. The drinker staggers and has trouble standing and walking. Speech may be slurred and confused. When the BAC reaches .30 percent, a drinker cannot track a moving object with his or her eyes. The person becomes confused and may pass out, or may stay conscious but later have no memory of what occurred. At a blood alcohol concentration of .40 percent, the drinker becomes unconscious and may go into a coma. At .50 percent, the workings of the brain are so depressed that breathing stops and the person usually dies of acute alcohol poisoning. .
The amount of alcohol that is needed to make a person drunk varies with every person. The key factor is the concentration of alcohol in the blood, and several different things affect this. One factor is the size of the drinker. A small person has less blood in his or her circulatory system than a big person. Therefore, a given amount of alcohol in his or her blood is more concentrated than in the blood of a larger person. So small adults can become intoxicated even if they drink less then large adults. .
Women usually weigh less than men do, and since pound for pound they have more fat and less water, alcohol is more consolidated in their blood. Also, the livers of women process alcohol less efficiently than those of men. These factors make women more susceptible than men to harm from alcohol. However, no two people will react to alcohol the same way, nor does an individual person necessarily react to alcohol the same way at different times.
