IMHO a driver who takes a drink MUST be very careful of the quantity they
are consuming and that the only way to do this is to count your drinks
carefully. Mixed drinks can be an unknown quantity and in general should be
avoided, particularly if they are being poured by a generous host. IMHO the
only safe alcohol to drink is bottled beer as the product has a known
alcohol level and it is possible to count units and time accurately (give
yourself a margin of safety). Drink lots of water to quench thirst and
prevent dehydration and hangover.

A lawyer who does a fair amount of DUI work told me that the most dangerous
thing to consume is wine as it is normally served in larger glasses which
contain more alcohol units than a beer or shot and make it difficult to
count your drinks. Companions will also frequently 'top up' your glass
which also makes counting more difficult. The lawyer claimed that the
majority of his business was due to wine.

IMHO, alcohol and nicotine are the most problematic drugs in use in our
culture, cigarettes should be eliminated and alcohol consumed very
carefully.

I once read a letter from some guy to his local PD, asking if he could borrow a
breathalyzer for the weekend to get a feel for what legal intoxication actually felt like.
Basically, his reasoning was that the body has no intrinsic way to measure BAC
numerically, and ruling on a numeric value that nobody could really measure was like not
equipping cards with speedometers, but rather a crib sheet with times and distances, and
coding the sheet "OK" "you might be speeding" and "definitely speeding" depending on the
time/distance. He does have a point, I guess.