Outright drunkenness is relatively easy to characterize, even though its symptoms vary from person to person, ranging from volubility to introspection, excitement to sadness. Concentration and coordination go out the window; maybe you slur your words. You get tired. You try to put your elbow on the bar and miss. That’s what happens when you have around 17 millimoles of ethanol per liter of blood, or 80 milligrams per every deciliter—sometimes also written “0.08 mg%,” or 0.08 blood alcohol content, the legal standard for intoxication in most parts of the United States. At higher concentrations, ethanol is a classic depressant of the central nervous system. Between 250 and 300 mg/dl, for example, it’s an anesthetic. You’re conked out, insensitive to pain. At 400 mg/dl ethanol is a solvent; that level of ingestion is fatal.
Adam Rogers in Proof