Hardly a police report is written in Massachusetts where a police officer does not claim that he detected a “strong odor of alcohol” emitting from the drunk driving suspect’s mouth. However, this statement is actually incorrect. Alcohol is completely odorless. It has no smell. What the police officers actually smell is the flavoring contained in the alcoholic beverages and not the alcohol itself.
The strength of this “odor of alcohol” is not a reliable indicator of a person’s level of intoxication or blood alcohol content (BAC). For example, beer and wine have more of an odor than “hard liquor,” even though the less odorous hard liquor is more intoxicating. Similarly, syrupy drinks such as liqueurs will remain in the oral cavity and produce stronger odors, as compared to other drinks.
Certain common products such as mouthwash or certain breath sprays can be mistaken for the odor of alcoholic beverages. Also, individuals who suffer from acid reflux may regurgitate alcohol and produce a artificially strong odor. In situations where there are multiple occupants in a car, the police may be detecting an odor from one person and attributing it to another.
As you can see, there are reasonable explanations for the “strong odor of alcohol” which appears in so many Massachusetts DUI police reports. As a DUI Attorney, my job in a drunk driving trial is to educate the jury regarding the odor of alcohol and how there is no correlation between the strength of this odor and the defendant’s level of alcohol intoxication.
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