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Walking Under the Influence?
Darth_fluffy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I know driving while drunk is a bad thing and I never do it. This thread isn't for that.
There are times, however, when I would like to go to the convenience store a few blocks away from my house. Legally, would it be okay to walk there after I've had a couple? I'm not endangering anyone, I'm just need some more Coke or a snack.
Does anyone have some general advice?
There are times, however, when I would like to go to the convenience store a few blocks away from my house. Legally, would it be okay to walk there after I've had a couple? I'm not endangering anyone, I'm just need some more Coke or a snack.
Does anyone have some general advice?
Darth_fluffy on
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If one drove by, he'd probably stop to see what I was doing roaming the streets so late.
Dude, it's perfectly fine to walk to the store while slightly intoxicated. Just don't be an ass.
You can be charged with being a public nuisance, but not just for being drunk. You have to be doing something, and the drunkenness is actually irrelevant.
They don't say "he was drunk and pissing on the wall", they say "he was pissing on the wall".
What ISN'T allowed, is street drinking. You cannot walk through public space drinking alcohol, or even carrying opened alcohol.
Unopened is fine.
So long as you don't do any stupid shit and don't make a nuisance of yourself you should be fine.
As long as you aren't being an ass or causing problems I doubt you'll run into problems. Public Intoxication is really a reason for cops to arrest people being total ass-hats when they're drunk, around here they have much better things to do with their time then arrest someone walking around after having afew.
BTW, you are of age right? If not, that might give them cause to ask a few questions.
Tell him you left your vehicle at the bar and you needed to get home but didnt have cab money.
Drunk people need to get places too, ive never heard of anyone just being arrested for walking around drunk. If theyre doing something stupid, then yeah, theyll probably get a mischeif and public intoxication charge, but just walking from point A to point B, thats fine.
Just FYI though, you can get a DUI on anything, even a bike or a skateboard. So make sure if you do go anywhere, you are walking.
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Wow, really? I find that a bit hard to believe. I'm pretty sure up here in Canada for example, you have to be in control of a motorized vehicle for it to be a crime. So a road vehicle, boat, airplane, whatever else. A bicycle I could maybe understand, only because they are required to drive on the public road system, so it's kind of a grey area. But something like a skateboard, or rollerblades? I know you Americans have draconian laws sometimes, but that seems a bit far.
It also depends on the laws in your area. Ultimately I wouldnt worry about it unless you staggering out into the street.
Oh yes, in the States it's VERY possible to get hauled off to jail on a DUI charge for riding a bicycle while drunk. It's stupid, but dem's the rules.
This is pretty much all anyone needs to say. It's okay to walk down the street drunk as long as you're not being an idiot. If a cop does stop you, be polite and answer his questions honestly. If you're not doing anything wrong (being an idiot), he'll let you go about your business.
Look, I've gone on pub crawls all through Los Angeles when our only transportation was the train and walking. We were never harassed by the police because a group of drunk suburban kids are very low priority in the grand scheme of things.
Well, sure, because bicyclists are supposed to act like and follow the same rules as cars do, and I imagine in this case, it's to prevent self-injury.
Now, if it's 11:00 at night and not 3:00 in the afternoon with a bunch of cars on the road, then yeah, I'd hope a cop would overlook you.
The first would be my good friend who works in a very high end mens clothing store. He was walking home alone one night and decided to climb over a knee high chain on the outskirts of a parking lot. He some how caught his foot and fell, neglecting to raise his hands which resulted in his face breaking his fall. I saw him the next day and he looked like he had been beaten by 12 angry men. He needed dozens of stitches and was forced to take a couple of weeks off of work because he looked so terrible.
Just last week I was walking home after having a few bottles of wine at a friend's house. I was intoxicated but not really hammered or anything like that -- at least that's what I thought. I was deep in thought as I was walking pondering the workings of the universe (wine and marijuana makes for a potent sedative). In order to get the full effect of what happened across to you I will type out my thought process at the time:
"Well that was a pretty good night. I'm happily sedated and I'm surprised with how well I'm doing on this walk; I seem to be barely swaying at all. Oh, there's my apartment up ahead -- I'll be home in no time. Hm, I appear to be in a bush."
Yes, I had fallen into a bush without even noticing....it was strange.
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You can't really be tested for being drunk without a warrant. So unless you're visibly drunk, you should be okay.
So, unless you're causing trouble, it looks like you're not breaking the law. Of course, you should know that I'm not (yet) an attorney, and anything I say shouldn't be taken as legal advice. I think that goes for everything that everyone else here has said, too.
Im canadian.
My friend got a warning for it, only because he didnt have his drivers licence on him at the time. He was riding literally 2 blocks from our house to the 7-11.
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I used to do this with my buddies all the time, and when we did occasionally run into cops, they didnt care. We werent stirring up shit, and so they would just leave us alone.
As for the biking and skateboarding drunk down the road: I honestly can say i have done this far too much over the years and usually I would get left alone. In the rare instance that they would pull me over, they would just tell me to get my drunk ass off the road, or to clean off the reflectors on my bike.
It seems at least up here that as long as you arent blatantly drinking in public or being a nuisance they have better things to do with your time.
You can also get a traffic citation for walking while intoxicated if you're on a public right-of-way, but the retarded thing about that is that in my state they can't take you into custody if you sign your ticket. Officers don't want to do this, because if they find somebody walking on a roadway who is intoxicated, let the defendant sign the ticket, and then send the defendant on his way, they're afraid of liability if he ends up getting hit by a car. So most of them will arrest you for public intoxication instead ("he was drunk on the road, so he was a danger to himself"), so they can take you to jail and make you sit in the drunk tank before you bond out.
Here in Australia, drunken walking might get you a talking to (AKA "what the hell? are you drunk? where you going?") but thats about the extent of it. Hell they even gave me a lift once cos they were driving past my place.
Over here though its walking only, riding a bike or whatever will get you into strife.