Intoxication defense

In criminal law, the intoxication defense is a defense by which a defendant may claim diminished responsibility on the basis of substance intoxication. Where a crime requires a certain mental state (mens rea) to break the law, those under the influence of an intoxicating substance may be considered to have reduced liability for their actions. With regard to punishment, intoxication may be a mitigating factor that decreases a prison or jail sentence. Numerous factors affect the applicability of the defense.

Societies have varied in their attitudes and cultural standards regarding public intoxication, historically based on the relationship between religion and drugs in general, and religion and alcohol in particular. In some instances, consumption of a mind-altering substance has formed the basis of religious or other socially approved ceremonies and festivals. In others, intoxication has been stigmatized as a sign of human weakness, of immorality, or as a sin. Secular approaches may also vary, having less inherent opposition to drugs but acknowledging that these may affect the inhibitions that help to keep socialized individuals from breaking prevailing social taboos which may or may not have been expressly criminalized. The attitude of a legal system to intoxicating substances can affect the applicability of intoxication as a defense under its laws: a system strongly opposed to a substance may even view intoxication as an aggravating factor rather than a mitigating one.

The effect of intoxication on criminal responsibility varies by jurisdiction and offense. The criminal code in question may require proof of various levels of intent. This may range from premeditation, through various degrees of intent or willingness to commit a crime, general recklessness, and finally no intent at all in some instances of strict liability. Intoxication may serve as a defense against proving more specific forms of intent. If so, its potential effectiveness will sometimes hinge on whether the defendant's intoxication was voluntary or involuntary: the defense would be denied defendants who had voluntarily disabled themselves by knowingly consuming an intoxicating substances, but allowed to those who had consumed it unknowingly or against their will.

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