Gadsden County Times

ALCOLINES
By Charley Stookey

The person who has several drinks of an alcoholic beverage and then drinks a couple of cups of hot coffee thinking it will sober him up and make him a safer driver, is merely kidding himself.

Many persons believe this and, during the Christmas holiday season, even some public agencies offered free coffee to persons who had been drinking, or were about to drink and drive, on the assumption that the coffee has a sobering effect.

According to research done at Yale University by Dr. Leon A. Greenburg, Associate Professor of Applied Physiology, it is shown that alcohol is uniformly burned up by the body at the rate of about 3/4 ounce of whiskey per hour.

Dr. Greenburg reported in the January 1958 issue of "The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science," that some way of hastening the disappearance of alcohol from the body had been widely sought, without success.

"The common belief that alcohol can be disposed of and intoxication worked off by exercise has no basis except to the extent that exercise takes time," he said. "Sobering up is a matter of time that might just as well be spent in relaxation.

"Stimulant drugs may counteract some of the depressant actions of alcohol, altering behavior. Such changes are not uncommonly interpreted as sobering. Thus the inebriate, frequently prone to fall asleep, is stimulated by the caffeine in the black coffee. He is now merely a wide-awake drunk instead of a sleepy one."