Scottish Police say don’t drink and drive

We agree. But what about the ‘morning after’?

Scotland reduced their drink drive limit to 22µg/100ml in December 2014 to bring them in line with most other European countries. This is also expressed as 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood or 0.05% BAC (Blood Alcohol Content).

With the Scottish drink drive limit more than half what it is in England & Wales, most people in Scotland who are out enjoying a drink won’t be driving home. But what about the next morning? Just 2 pints and an early start could see you in jail.

The morning after the night before

To ensure that you are safe to drive in Scotland, there are essentially four choices:

Don’t drink at all
Use a digital breathalyser to measure your alcohol level (but with the Scottish drink drive limit at just 50mg/100ml blood (22µg/100ml breath & 0.05%BAC), make sure it’s accurate enough)
Use a Scottish Single Use Breathalyzer to check before you go. If the colour in the tube changes to red, don’t drive!

There are many who are quite happy to simply not drink at all – but they’re probably not reading this article. And there’s nothing wrong with a few drinks so long as you’re not still impaired when you get behind the wheel of a car – but without a breathalyser, at the Scottish drink drive limit it’s very difficult to just guess when you’re safe to drive. Everyone is different and most people vary from day to day.

Recommended Breathalysers for Scotland

We recommend the following breathalysers to test yourself the ‘morning after’ in Scotland. Single use breathalysers are cheap (just £2.99 each) and simple to use – but they won’t give you an accurate ‘reading’ as such. To accurately measure the level of alcohol in your body you need a digital breathalyser.