are people responsible for their behavior when drinking?

I have always heard that you won't do or say something drunk or high if you wouldn't do it when you are sober or straight. In the words of a wise man, "horsie poop."

I have been plenty drunk (or high) in the past and I did a lot of things I wouldn't dream of doing sober. I don't know for sure how it works but the alcohol/drug surpresses that part of you that I call common sense. I think the way we are still responsible for the acts we do either drunk or high is the ones we commit to get that way.

Oh yeah, and you really should not wait until the last minute to do your homework. :wink:

There are rare occasions when someone isn't responsible for drinking to excess, such as when they have their drink "spiked" without their knowledge (say, a birthday celebration, when someone buys you a vodka and orange, but secretly makes sure that the vodka is a triple).

Apart from that, I tend to agree that drinkers are responsible for their own intake and behaviour.

In my experience, there are different types of "drunk". One person will always go all giggly with alcohol, another will go quiet and drop off to sleep, another will always want to pick a fight, etc.

Behaviour and intake can also be influenced by the occasion. A group of young men, drinking after a rugby match, will invarioubly drink to excess, to assist them in letting off steam, and to further reinforce the bond of the "team" thing. Peer pressure sometimes leads to someone getting drunk, who would normally be quite sensible.

Good luck with your essay.

one is responsible for BEING drunk. and should be able to control himself or herself enough to not drive, ride a bike (or not to call an ex, send out emails to their boss, etc etc...)
one also controls WHEN and HOW MUCH one gets drunk. For that a person is fully responsible. And doing something dumb while drunk (from own initiative) has no excuse in my books. That applies to myself, too.

On the other hand, when somebody misuses another while that another is drunk (date rape, signing something, being put in some situation...) that is another matter. In that case the drunk person is not responsible for consequences (that would vary depending on context i guess), for he/she was misused in a vulnerable state.

I believe we become more relaxed version of ourselves when we are drunk, and that we are still responible for our actions.After all, we decided to have a drink when we are sober.

Annoyingly I feel more 'in control' when drunk than when im sober.

I can compliment people more, yet i can also cry un controllably at the drop of a hat.

It makes us less inhibited, hence we do things when drunk that we'd love to do when sober but we dont because of worry or analasis(sp)

You are responsible for your behavior at all times. Unless, like Lord said you are unknowingly drugged. At which point, you can't be held responsible for something you didn't know had been done to you.


But yes, if you do something drunk and then regret it, you've still done it and the damage is irreversable. You can't take it back so yes, you are responsible.

Ok, Bella Dea, I'm not liking that at all! Seriously though, I didn't have a lot of trouble getting over the things I did when drunk or high. It was the blackouts and what I MIGHT have done during them that gave me the most trouble.

I agree with what everyone said regarding being responsible.

If people were not responsible then we would not have drunk driving laws.

I am The Bear times ten when I'm drunk... which is why I no longer get shitfaced drunk.

I have done many things which nearly cost me my life when drunk.

I love being drunk but not the hangover aftterwards so it puts me off getting poohfaced.
Last time i did that I had a chat with ozzy Osbourne and puked up a very nice chinese meal and was ill for 2 days.

there's drunk and there's shitfaced drunk. we choose how we get drunk. hence we're responsible for what we do.

The law definitely draws a distinction between voluntary and involuntary intoxication (such as when roofies are tossed in one's drink; intoxication refers not only to drinking but also to using drugs, even legal ones, in this context).

Voluntary = generally you are responsible for your actions
Involuntary = generally you aren't

But, this being the law and all that happy stuff, there are always exceptions.

Try going to Cornell's legal webite (LLI) and tossing voluntary intoxication into their search engine.

A drunk may or may not be able to control his actions, but remember he chose to swallow the drinks that affected his behavior.

"I shouldn't have said what I said--but I was drunk." (And I chose to swallow the drink).

"I didn't mean to hurt anyone, but I lost control of the car." (And I chose to swallow the drink.

"I'm really sorry. I wouldn't have done that/said that sober." (But I chose to swallow the drink.)

Good Lord! Was that ME that posted those things up there on page 1?


Must have been sober at the time, wot? Clever chap, really.

Now....what was I saying?.....

The way I see it: not being responsible for your actions when drunk is a bit like not being responsible for what a bullet does after it leaves your gun.

The stupid things you do drunk are just consequences of things you do sober...namely drinking.

Well, all I know is this. I took some medicine today and had a weird reaction to it was wired for sound for awhile there. I felt pretty invincible and got in a verbal (typed) fight with someone. I was so wound up. Well, even if it was the medicine that made me act that way, I still feel responsible. Maybe that's the real question?

When we get drunk and act shamefully, our friends say that the alcohol was to blame, that it made us behave the way we did. Our enemies, on the other hand, say that the alcohol served to reveal our true nature. The truth is both and more.

There was a story a few years back about a county comissioner who got pulled for driving erratically, his defense was that he had a medical condition, where his digestive system, natually fermented foodstuffs and turned them into alcohol. The doctors confirmed this, but the judge threw thew book at him anyway, reasoning that it was still his responsibility to control his actions.

Well, I actually agree with you LionTamerX. I guess he just didn't need to eat and drive. :wink:

People are responsible for themselves all the time.
They are definetly responsible for themselves when drinking.

Even if someone slips ya some pills, you are still responsible for yourself.
For example: someone slips you a pill and then you in a drugged state decide to kill someone.
Well?
Who is responsible?

I believe the person who slipped the pill is responsible for that action, and the one who pulls the trigger is responsible for that.

Of course consideration should always be given to a person's state of mind, body, and general health.
It just shouldn't be an excuse for bad behavior.

Of course this is soo simplified. Real life pretty much has to be handled on a case by case basis.