There is one surefire way to lower your blood alcohol concentration (BAC): take the time required to wait for it to go down. Your body is always metabolizing alcohol after you have consumed it, working it out of your system. Given enough time, your BAC will return to zero.
That said, it takes far longer than many people assume. You are not going to sober up in a half hour. Generally, your BAC goes down by just 0.015% every hour. For example, say that you had a BAC of 0.10%, which is over the legal limit of 0.08%. If you wanted to wait to get back under that legal limit, it would take roughly an hour and a half to two hours to do so. It would take around seven or eight hours for you to get all the way back to zero.
Can you speed this process up?
For better and for worse, you typically cannot speed up the process of a BAC reduction. People will sometimes suggest tactics like drinking a cup of coffee or taking a cold shower. But there is no evidence that these things actually cause your BAC to drop, so they are not going to change when it is legal for you to drive. Coffee may help you feel more sober, but it is really just because the caffeine is waking you up. Your BAC is still roughly just as high as it was before you drank the coffee.
Your legal defense options
If you try to rush the process or drive before your BAC has declined, you may find yourself facing impaired driving charges. If so, it is crucial that you know exactly what legal defense options you have available to you. Seeking legal guidance can help.
