The next range of BACs, between 20–50mM, is still relevant to human intoxication, as a variety of CNS depressant effects dominate, including profound sedation, amnesia, emesis, hypnosis and eventually unconsciousness. All of these effects may occur within this range of BACs - in social drinkers, and especially in “binge drinkers”. We will define all of these effects as being within the medium dose range (M). Finally, there is an additional range of BACs between 50–100mM that is not experienced by normal individuals and so is not normally considered relevant to human intoxication. We should note that these levels are tolerated and frequently achieved by chronic alcoholics seeking to experience sedation, anxiolysis, and hypnosis, and so these levels are relevant to the biology of an unusual (but large and clinically important) class of human drinkers. We define 50–100mM as the high dose range (H) and levels above this (100–200mM), which would be lethal to all but alcoholics, as the very high range (VH). In this context, it should be noted that the relationship between BACs and behavioral intoxication in humans is complex, and there are interactions with the social environment as well as family history [2].
