# Drunk how quick **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 14, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-how-quick/777168 "2017-01-14T22:19:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Svt4Him](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@Svt4Him](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svt4Him)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-how-quick/777168/1 "2017-01-14T22:19:44Z")
I’ve seen videos of people drinking large bottles of vodka, and immediately stand up drunk. I believe it takes about 20-30 min to process food, maybe less for liquid, but can someone get drunk that fast, as it usually just takes a couple of minutes to finish the bottle? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drunk-how-quick/777168/2 "2017-01-14T23:28:54Z")
Depends upon what you mean by “process food.” Alcohol is for all intents already processed, at least as far as your digestion is concerned. It is simply a matter of how fast the alcohol is adsorbed into the bloodstream. And that starts happening before the alcohol even reaches you stomach. A stomach full of vodka is going to be providing alcohol to be adsorbed by the blood vessels in the stomach lining at a very high concentration. A couple of minutes to get to a reasonably serious blood alcohol level does not seem too unreasonable. With that amount of alcohol the next problem will be staying alive. Vomiting is a good start. The body will be processing the alcohol - but only after it is in the bloodstream, with the liver being responsible for trying to break it down. But it can only do so at a fixed rate. In the interim you can be anything from drunk, dead drunk or just plain dead.