WHEN A MAN IS DRUNK.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19343, 22 June 1928, Page 4

WHEN A MAN IS DRUNK.

I LONDON CONTROVERSY. STANDARD TEST WANTED. '•Should there be a standard test for sobriety?" asks tho London "Daily Mail" of April 19th. This question is again agitating the minds of the public, particularly motorists, as a result of the decision of Mr Bingley, the Marylebone Magistrate (which was printed in The Press last Monday) that there are no degrees of drunkenness, and that a man who is charged with an offence, such as being drunk in charge of a motor-car, is cither drunk or sober. Lawyers are not quite certain with regard* to the legal definition of drunkenTioss, for while some liold that there arc degrees of intoxication others accept. the Lord Chief Justice's dictum that "drunk means drunk." The Court of Criminal Appeal has not yet laid down a precise, definition. Sir Jame3 Purves-Stewart, senior physician to Westminster Hospital, holds that it is essential that the medical profession —and it is always a doctor who is called in by the police to determine whether an accused person is drunk —should be more precise He suggests in the current issue of the "Practitioner" the following definition of drunkenness: . A drunk person is ono who has taken alcohol in sufficient quantity to poison his /central nervous system, producing a temporary disorder of his faculties so as to render liim unable to execute the occupation on which he was engaged at the time, thereby causing danger to himself and others. This definition would appear to upset the dictum of "drunk is drunk" and to suggest that there are degrees of drunkenness a-s is held by many Magistrates.

"What is wanted," said a lawyer yesterday, "is a definite pronouncement by the Court of Criminal Appeal and also a standardisation of tests if that be possible " The committee appointed somo time agp by the British Medical Association laid it down that there is no. single test in itself which will justify a doctor in deciding that the amount of alcohol consumed has caused a person to lose control of his faculties to such an extent that he was unable to execute safely the occupation on which he was engng-d at the material time. There are no drunkenness tests in France. Motorists causing an acc : dent when under the iufluence of drink are very severely dealt with. Even if the mishap is a minor ono their driving license is withdrawn, and in serious cases_ they are liable to long terms of imprisonment.