KZBlog

A man in Kazakhstan was arrested for drinking under the influence of alcohol but charges were dropped because he was drinking kumys, not beer. Kumys is, of course, fermented mare’s milk and it is slightly alcoholic. But apparently drinking 1.6 quarts of it is not enough to impair your driving legally. Especially if you have a doctor’s prescription. It is widely believed that kumys can treat or cure a number of problems including asthma.

While I do think kumys is not particularly alcoholic, 1.6 quarts is a lot of drinking. And I have to wonder why the method of getting drunk matters in a legal court. In most states in the US, at any rate, you cannot drive if your blood alcohol content is 0.08%. It doesn’t matter if you have been drinking beer, vodka, wine, homeopathic remedies, preservatives from pickled fruits, jet fuel or home brew. Drunk is drunk.

I suppose it also depends if this guy was actually driving recklessly when police pulled him over or if the police saw him coming out of a cafe and assumed he was drunk. In other words, if he wasn’t posing a danger with his vehicle, I guess it’s ok to let him go.

Nevertheless I wouldn’t want to be on the roads with someone who shot back 4 bowls of kumys!