Woman Convicted of Drunken Driving After Having Three Glasses of Listerine

[Tsiyu]

ADRIAN, Mich. (AP) - A woman arrested after failing a sobriety test and telling police she drank three glasses of Listerine has pleaded guilty to drunken driving.
Carol Ries, 50, was pulled over after she rear-ended another vehicle at a red light on Jan. 9. She passed one breathalyzer test, but failed another that used different equipment.

Police found a bottle of Listerine in her car, and she told them she had drunk three glasses earlier in the day. Her blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit, police said.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBLKHXGG4E.html

[Kire]

1. you're not supposed to DRINK it...

...and drive, at least.

[latteromden]

2. ...what kind of idiot drinks Listerine?

:wtf:

[Tsiyu]

3. A desperate one? n/t

[blue northern]

6. My guess is this:

She had the Listerene on hand to try to mask the smell of liquor, or to provide an excuse for the smell of alcohol on her breath. Listerene contains alcohol after all, but I don't think anyone could stomach enough to get 3X the legal level of impairment.
Sounds like it didn't work.
An old boss of mine drank quite a bit (off and on) and there was always a bottle of Listerene nearby when he was on a rip.
The only person he really fooled was himself too.

[Gman]

13. A hopeless alcoholic that can't afford a bottle of whiskey

or whatever.

This is a very sad situation.

[Stepup2]

4. This is weird

Why would someone drink listerine? What ever happened to the cheap stuff?

Hey lady... if you have a problem with alcohol maybe this is the time to address it.

[Fridays Child]

7. I guess you haven't ried the new orange-flavored Listerine.

It's just like Kool-Aid. :bounce:

[K8-EEE]

9. Anybody Remember Kitty Dukakis Drinking Nail Polish Remover?

Her alcoholism was getting inconveniently out of control during Dukakis's prez campaign so they had people basically keeping her under lock & key and she managed to get to some nail polish remover.

Addiction is a bitch....fortunately she did do rehab and recover after the election.

[autorank]

5. So that stuff has alcohol in it?

[BiggJawn]

15. Yeah, 25-25%

Most mouthwashes have alcohol in them, enough to be 50 Proof or more.

Saw one of those "Coroner" shows on TV where they found a guy in a pond. They found his camp nearby, with lots of empty bottles of cheap mouthwash. His stomach was full of mouthwash and he had a high alcohol content to his tissues.

When you send your kids to booze re-hab, they will BEG for mouthwash, but it's not allowed by the rules. Same for other toiletries. Some hard-cores will eat deodorant to get the alcohol.

[ogradda]

8. who would DRINK listerine?

total yuck :(

[K8-EEE]

10. Mitigating Factor: Best DUI Breath Of The Night! eom

:O)

[NinetySix]

11. Has anyone told the President about this?

Seems to me a brilliant idea like this could have saved him a lot of heartache during the 2000 campaign. Oh yeah, Dick too.

[FuzzyDicePHL]

12. Restrict Listerine's use

I wonder how long it'll be before some idiot demands that retailers keep Listerine under lock and key, requiring the customer to show ID and sign something before being allowed to purchase it, like the recent story on cold medicines?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1183789&mesg_id=1183789

:crazy:

[Ian David]

14. Do you remember Kitty Dukakis who drank a bottle of perfume?

[kath]

16. when I was in residency, we had a 4 or 5 year-old die from drinking

mouthwash. Apparently he drank it while the mom wasn't around. She saw him later, thinking he was asleep I guess, while he was actually passed out. I think she called an ambulance when he started seizing from the very low blood sugar level that alcohol poisoning produces. He died after a couple of days in the ICU. Very sad. It struck me this could be a fairly common household hazard for young kids. People (who might otherwise have poisons/dangerous substances locked away from their little ones) tend to leave the bottle of mouthwash sitting around on the bathroom counter, not realizing that some brands are 25% alcohol and therefore quite dangerous to kids.