[Doofy]

Man on dance drug mepherdrone dies after drinking pint of vodka in four seconds | Mail Online

A drinker who had taken the dance drug mephedrone died after downing a pint of vodka in four seconds, an inquest heard.
Richard Davies swallowed the spirits in one go, despite attempts to stop him.
The 29-year-old had been drinking with friends before the alcohol - the equivalent of 13 pints of lager - knocked him into a stupor.
He was found unconscious and not breathing in a pool of his own blood, and died hours later.

What a tool.

[turtle777]

Pathologist Jan Lowe said Mr Davies had an alcohol level of 458mg in 100ml of blood

That's 45.8‰

-t

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

That's 45.8‰

-t

Hence the death part.

Highest recorded blood alcohol level ever survived was about 0.134%, if I recall correctly. And that was pretty much a medical miracle. 0.458% is just insane.

[Person Man]

Ok... first I saw "dance drug." Wasn't familiar with the term. Must be a UK thing. For those people not familiar with it, the drug in question is a stimulant, along the lines of amphetamines. (Apparently it's not made it over to the U.S. in significant quantities yet, because I, as a physician, have never heard of it before).

Second, the comments on that article are stupid. People are calling for banning "legal high alcohol." What on earth does that mean? Ban drinks with high alcohol content? That wouldn't work, people would just drink more of beverages that have lower alcohol content. Ban all alcohol? Ha! It's been tried before, and we know how that turned out. Make it illegal for bars/pubs/restaurants/etc to serve people alcohol past the "legal drink-drive" limit? Who would enforce it? How would it be enforced? It would just drive it into private homes.

You can't ban stupidity, people.

[Brien]

Agreed.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

Second, the comments on that article are stupid. People are calling for banning "legal high alcohol." What on earth does that mean? Ban drinks with high alcohol content?

No, it's basically this: A lot of drugs here are legal (for example, Salvia), thus they're described as a "legal high". A lot of folks have been dying of these lately, so the government's been banning them one-by-one.
So what they're saying is "alcohol is a legal high". Which is correct. Unless you're on gin, in which case it's a legal low.

Example of store for legal highs:
http://www.shivaheadshop.co.uk/shop/...als/index.html

All ethnobotanical samples are sold for research purposes only. Not For Human Consumption.

Wink wink.

[turtle777]

I don't have a problem with people killing themselves like that.

It's natural selection, survival of the smartest.

-t

[Brien]

Well, you UKers can have fun banning alcohol. It worked out great here in the US in the 20's.

[chabig]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

That's 45.8‰

No. You're confusing mg (mass) with ml (volume).

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Brien 

Well, you UKers can have fun banning alcohol. It worked out great here in the US in the 20's.

Made my great grandfather rich as a rum runner for the mob.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

So what they're saying is "alcohol is a legal high". Which is correct. Unless you're on gin, in which case it's a legal low.

Ok, so they're saying that alcohol should be made illegal, then. Again, good luck on that one. All one has to do is look to America's Prohibition experiment in the 1920's to see what that would lead to.

[olePigeon]

The drug cartels are lobbying both Democrat and Republican politicians to keep marijuana and most other drugs illegal in the U.S., along with a whole bunch of prescription drugs. They make a ton more money when they're illegal, exacerbating the drug and violence problems. Probably the same in the UK.

[SpaceMonkey]

This is the same country that had those stories about it being popular to pour vodka into your eye, right? Hm.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey 

This is the same country that had those stories about it being popular to pour vodka into your eye, right? Hm.

Yes. One half of the country is a bunch of pissed up monkeys. The other half is straight-laced as they come.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by chabig 

No. You're confusing mg (mass) with ml (volume).

Not really. 1 ml of alcohol weighs 1 mg.

-t

[CollinG3G4]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Not really. 1 ml of alcohol weighs 1 mg.

-t

ethanol 0.789g/mL
458mg -->.58mL ethanol
By volume = 0.58%
By weight = 0.45% (assuming the density of blood is 1g/mL)

[turtle777]

Ah, give or take.

-t

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Not really. 1 ml of alcohol weighs 1 mg.

1ml of water weighs 1g. I don't think alcohol weighs one thousandth of the weight of water.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Not really. 1 ml of alcohol weighs 1 mg.

-t

I thought 1ml of water = 1 mg.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Not really. 1 ml of alcohol weighs 1 mg.

-t

...

[turtle777]

I guess I need to drink mroe to get my math right

-t

[CollinG3G4]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

I guess I need to drink mroe to get my math right
-t

Hah, and take some amphetamine analogs! The article shouldn't have reported the guy's BAC in milligrams/volume in the first place.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

I thought 1ml of water = 1 mg.

Actually, 1 ml of water = 1 g at 4 °C

[Brien]

Originally Posted by CollinG3G4 

By volume = 0.58%

So if I've understood correctly, this guy has 120-proof blood? Wowza.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by hayesk 

1ml of water weighs 1g. I don't think alcohol weighs one thousandth of the weight of water.

LOL, yeah, minor detail.

1ml water = 1 mkg

That's what I wanted to say

-t

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

Actually, 1 ml of water = 1 mg at 4 °C

I thought it was at STP (standard temperature and pressure) which would be something near 1k millibars... But for practical purposes 1ml liquid H20 "weighs" 1mg in environments that are comfortable. Practical? Let's keep in mind that the need for precision is relative. The idiot who guzzled the vodka would be just as dead no matter what temperature and pressure the liquid water was weighed at.

Precision is very nice to have, but excess precision is costly. If you used the fraction 355/113 to approximate pi, you'd be off the real value: the fraction equals 3.14159292, whereas the real value to that many places is 3.14159265. But if you assumed the planet Earth was a smooth sphere, used 8000 miles as the diameter, and used the fraction to calculate the circumference...you'd be off by about 11 FEET.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I thought it was at STP (standard temperature and pressure) which would be something near 1k millibars... But for practical purposes 1ml liquid H20 "weighs" 1mg in environments that are comfortable. Practical? Let's keep in mind that the need for precision is relative. The idiot who guzzled the vodka would be just as dead no matter what temperature and pressure the liquid water was weighed at.

Precision is very nice to have, but excess precision is costly. If you used the fraction 355/113 to approximate pi, you'd be off the real value: the fraction equals 3.14159292, whereas the real value to that many places is 3.14159265. But if you assumed the planet Earth was a smooth sphere, used 8000 miles as the diameter, and used the fraction to calculate the circumference...you'd be off by about 11 FEET.

No, STP is more important for gases. I majored in chemistry before medical school. Any time we had to do a calculation involving the density of water, they always specified that the temperature was 4 °C.

[Laminar]

ONE GRAM. ONE ****ING GRAM
allcaps

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

Actually, 1 ml of water = 1 mg at 4 °C

1 L water = 1 kg

1 ml water = 1 g

0.001 ml water = 1 mg.

Also, ‰ is not the same thing as %.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

1 L water = 1 kg

1 ml water = 1 g

0.001 ml water = 1 mg.

Also, ‰ is not the same thing as %.

You are, of course, correct. I was wrong. And thanks for not being an arschloch like the guy above you.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

ONE GRAM. ONE ****ING GRAM
allcaps

Oh crap, I did copy the "mg" every time, didn't I... Rats. You are 100%, absolutely and positively correct.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

No, STP is more important for gases. I majored in chemistry before medical school. Any time we had to do a calculation involving the density of water, they always specified that the temperature was 4 °C.

Ah yes. It's been a long time since I did any real chemistry. STP for gases, of course. and 4ºC is the magic number because there's a density thing going - water gets denser down TO 4ºC and then gets LESS DENSE below that-allowing ice to float, life as we know it, layered mixed drinks, etc.

[Railroader]

But how many joules is it?

[macaddict0001]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

But how many joules is it?

Depends, I suppose, How many can the human body actually use?

And if you want to get really accurate water does compress.

[CollinG3G4]

Well, to heat 1mL of water from 0°C to 4°C would require 16.7 J. Maybe 4 pages later we can agree on it.

My assumptions:
1mL = 1g
1 cal = 4.184J
1 cal/°C

[Laminar]

And how many jiggawatts?

[CollinG3G4]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

And how many jiggawatts?

I don't know. You'd have to define the rate at which the water was heated first. But i'm gona go with 1.21 jiggawatts.

[Railroader]

I'm sorry. But the only power source capable of generating 1.21 jiggawatts of electricity is a bolt of lightning.

[Teronzhul]

In 1955 maybe. Mr. Fusion will fix that.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Teronzhul 

In 1955 maybe. Mr. Fusion will fix that.

They've still got about 4 years to come out with Mr. Fusion.