People who drink and use various drugs for recreational purposes or to self-medicate often are unaware of the dangers involved. There are lots of drugs you definitely should not take when you drink alcohol. Worse still, if you are caught by the police, you may incur heavier penalties for taking these drugs and imbibing alcohol at the same time. Here are some of those drugs, the types of penalties you could expect, and how a DUI lawyer may be able to help.
Sedatives and Alcohol
Sedatives relax and put you to sleep. Alcohol is a depressant. It depresses your immune system, and renders your inhibition center in your brain as useless. When you put the two together, you end up unconscious, or worse, unconscious and unable to breathe because your muscles (i.e., your heart and diaphragm) are not contracting as they should. If you are driving when this happens, you can kill people with the car and never wake up to see what you did.
Some of the most common sedatives taken with alcohol are:
If you take any of the above with alcohol, you will experience multiple symptoms that will lead you to finally and completely pass out. (This cocktail of sedatives and alcohol used to be the mix unsavory types used to date-rape their dates until other date rape drugs came along in the '80's and '90's. It is best to avoid them.)
Why the Heftier Penalties If You Are Arrested and Charged with a DUI
Since many people have attempted suicide on this lethal combination, the police may think you are trying to commit suicide. If you were driving straight at another car belonging to someone you know, it may be attempted homicide too. With double the drugs in your system, some states consider it a first AND second DUI charge simultaneously, which results in both penalties for both offenses being issued simultaneously. If someone is killed because you took sedatives with alcohol, you would be charged with their death as well. The idea is to charge you harshly enough so that you do not repeat this mistake again.
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help
If no one but you was injured, or no one was injured at all because the police pulled you over before an accident could occur, you could get a lesser sentence. Your lawyer could argue that you need to check into a drug rehab program. As in in-patient in drug rehab, you would get an education about mixing sedatives and alcohol, and rehab would help you correct your ways.
Contact a professional like Robert A Murray for more information.
Share10 February 2018
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