intoxication

• heavily grounded on public policy situations

  intoxication major factor in commission of many crimes

  need to balance the rights of d and v

  cost to nhs and anti-social behaviour resulting from people using alcohol balanced tax revenue

  public policy to to criminalise drink/drugs but no distinction between types of offender

  all intoxicating substances treated similarly wether legal or illegal
• destination between sio and bio flawed

  terminology not used elsewhere in criminal law, unnecessarily confusing

  difference between them hard to find for some offences, judges admit this in (heard)

  intoxication not allowed for bios, getting drunk considered reckless, provides mr for offence, but getting drunk only reckless when doing something stupid when drunk

  decision to drink may be several hours before d commits ar offences (o'grady)

  reform - LC aim to abolish and apply same rules across all offences, fair for d's and society
• distinction between voluntarily and involuntarily flawed

  dealing with vi rape is a bio, intoxication fail as a defence, however could be successful if d charged with attempted rape, which is sio

  ii doesn't take into account impact on an individual of drink or drugs to reduce a person's inhibitions to commit crimes, can still be found guilty if they were capable of forming necessary mr (Kingston), ignores that d was not to blame for intoxication

  reform - LC recommended including in the new bill a specific list of situations that will be classed as ii
• alternative approach taken in richardson would make law fairer

  considers whether d would have realised relevant risk if he had not been drinking

  mere fact of being intoxicated doesn't automatically make d guilty

  difficult to know whether particular d would have done if sober

  reform - Butler Committee, offence of 'dangerous intoxication' rejected

  law commission 2009 - remove sio and bio, keep vi and ii, presumption that no intoxication, but if evidence exists intoxication presumed to be voluntarily