Knowing what BAC is and how it pertains to you is very important in your defense should you ever face a DUI charge. BAC, or blood alcohol content, is the amount of alcohol that is currently in your bloodstream. In order to understand how this pertains to you, we need to take a look at how alcohol is metabolized.
When you consume an alcoholic beverage, the contents travel right to your stomach. From there, 20 percent of it enters your bloodstream. The other 80 percent travels to your small intestine where it enters the bloodstream from there. At this point the liver starts working on purifying your blood and removing the alcohol via enzymes that it releases. The liver can successfully metabolize one standard alcoholic drink per hour. If you consume more than this rate, your liver cannot work fast enough to remove the alcohol. This means that the excess alcohol stays in your bloodstream until your liver can get around to removing it.
When the police check your BAC level, either via breath or blood test, they are seeing just how much alcohol you consumed. Note that body type and weight can cause variations in the amount of drinks someone can metabolize, which is why police check for the amount of alcohol in your blood and not the amount of drinks you consumed. If your BAC level is higher than the legal limit (which varies by state), most likely you will be retained.
Nothing can remove the effects of alcohol consumption except time. If you've consumed alcohol and are concerned about getting a DUI or hurting yourself or others, it's best to call a taxi or ask a designated driver to bring you home. Since BAC levels are not easily contested, you will have a hard time fighting it if it's used against you in court.
