Alcoholism (or just bad drinking habits) can hit at any age. Where I work I’ve seen numerous very elderly people buying a brewery’s worth of alcohol, a few weeks ago we had to refuse to sell to an elderly gentleman who reeked of alcohol at the time, and last year my 80+ downstairs neighbor who likes her wine too much nearly set herself and her apartment on fire - if I hadn’t been home to call 911 when MY smoke detector started beeping form the smoke seeping up from her apartment the whole damn building might have gone up.
Plenty of very old people drink, and drink too much. It doesn’t help that as you age you don’t process alcohol as well (because nothing works as well as it used to) so an amount that just left you slightly buzzed in your youth can have you pretty messed up at 90. Add in prescription drugs that don’t play well with booze and you have some pretty messed up old farts and it has nothing to do with impending dementia (although drinking too much for too long can cause certain types of dementia).
Indeed. I’ve enjoyed drinking now for close to 60 years and I’m not about to change as I grow older still.
Hyperbole. I’ve lent a hand at a couple of local craft breweries doing their first bottle/can runs. A “brewery’s worth of alcohol” is thousands of gallons or more.
Also, I’d argue that “elderly” doesn’t work well with the modifier “very”.
The term elderly lacks an equal and opposite term pederly ; unlike geriatrics versus pediatrics that describes an area of medicine and health care. The term elderly is often used to describe frail individuals; without applying the well-known and valid criteria of frailty.
I guess many people, myself included, mistakenly think of DUI as a younger adult’s problem, but you’re right, it can happen to people of any age.
I had long heard about the prevalence of alcoholism (and other addictive issues) in the elderly, but didn’t really believe it until I got the job at the big hospital. (I had also been skeptical about the fact that the per capita suicide rate is highest in the senior population as well, until I started working there.) Many people do it to “cope” with declining health, loss of spouse and other family members (including children), etc.
The mention of a specific elevated (to what degree it doesn’t say) blood alcohol level suggests this involves more than “suspicion of DUI”, whoever may be at fault for causing the accident.
To blame this incident on dementia seems as much of an overreach as citing supposedly draconian drunk driving laws. Aside from factors already mentioned, elderly persons may be at risk for excess/inappropriate drinking secondary to depression and other non-dementia mental disorders.
Or the most obvious explanation may be in play - having too many drinks in too short a time at a party and then driving, like someone in his 20s might do.
Note that BAC varies according to weight and gender, and impairment can be affected by physical state. A man on average might reach a BAC of 0.08 by having 4-5 drinks in an hour. I am a light and infrequent drinker; I can recall a couple of times in the past where I really felt a single margarita with dinner after an exhausting day at work. My BAC at those times was almost certainly well under the legal limit, but I didn’t feel safe to drive.
I’m sorry - I didn’t realize you were unaware of the uses of hyperbole in English speech/writing.
Someone in their 90’s is elderly in the normally understood sense of the word. While there are some remarkably fit 90+ people (in fact, I had a lunch with one last week, and had the pleasure of knowing a woman still working as a commercial pilot/flight instructor in her 90’s which takes a certain base level of fitness many half her age would envy), the average person in that age range actually IS frail compared to adult humans in their prime.
We can’t stop the nonagenarians (there, do you like that term?) from purchasing the legal limit of wine (913 ounces/27 liters), beer (864 ounces), and hard spirits (haven’t figured that one out but we have had people trip the limit on our registers) at the store where I work and requesting assistance from our cart guys in getting it into their cars to drive home, but we don’t have to like it. And yes, we have had people buy the absolute limit of wine AND beer AND liquor all at once. And when those people keep coming back and doing it again on a regular basis you start drawing conclusions that, regardless of age, there may be a drinking issue at play. We don’t sell to them when they are obviously intoxicated (that’s our policy regardless of the age of an adult customer) but outside of that our alcohol is available for them to buy.
I in no way want to limit responsible and non-addicted use of alcohol in adults. But let’s not pretend that some people don’t have a problem when they very clearly do have a problem.
One DUI does not prove a person alcoholic, of course. But far preferable would be for people to simply not drink and then drive.
Or too many samplings at a wine tasting in Napa valley? Just a guess, I actually don’t know what Mr. Pelosi was doing, but a wine tasting is an example of a situation where someone normally responsible about alcohol use might misjudge how much they’ve had or their state of intoxication. Thank Og no one was killed or maimed but there should be consequences such that the person is more careful in the future.
Or too many drinks at a dinner party. Like I said, I don’t know what’s up with this instance, but if it was a dinner party then if he had just hung out drinking ginger ale for another couple hours then there might not have been a problem. Or called an Uber - I’m sure he could afford it.
