“It’s DUI whether Ambien or alcohol. “
I dunno. I almost burnt down my house whilst somnambulating on Ambien. LEO friends tell me about pulling people over who were under the influence of that crap. They had no clue where they were, or what they were doing. I guess it’s still DUI, but perhaps with extenuating circumstances. Need to talk to her doc, for one thing.
When I was a little kid, I was a sleepwalker. Outgrew it. Ambien brought it right back. There were a lot of things happening around the house that I couldn’t figure out,,, plus weight gain. I was sleep-eating on Ambien. That’s very common. When I figured out what was happening, my doc didn’t believe me. He does now that all the negative effects have been exposed. If you ever, in your life, somnambulated, tell your doc, and don’t take Ambien.
Thank God I never “sleep drove”! Or did I? I have no way of knowing.
I’ve been around a couple of people who used Ambien, as prescribed, for sleep.
Both of them said stuff when under it that was quite out of character and odd and didn’t remember it the next morning. It is, or can be, really psycho active.
One of them, when they talked nuts, I’d asked “did you take your Ambien?” Always, “yes.” Eventually I got them to stop it and they sleep well without it now.
Great day alive! I take Ambien at night to sleep, but it does nothing to me, not even a little drowsiness. The pharmacist says druggies love it. I just don’t see it.
Ambien does seem to be nasty stuff for some people. My wife was only able to sleep a couple of hours nightly so her doctor gave her Ambien to try. It didn’t help her sleeplessness but just one pill made her so dizzy she needed help up the steps and didn’t dare drive for three days.
However, along the lines of the Kennedy situation, it was quite clear to both of us that she should not drive.
The only way to know for sure is to put a cheap pocket watch on the driveway behind your tire, like Jake Gittes used to do.
Three years ago I was traveling alone between Florida and Tennessee. I stopped for the night at a motel in Georgia off I-95. At the time I had a prescription for Ambien. I took an Ambien and watched TV for a few minutes. I decided I might get a snack remembering there was a Taco Bell down the street. I got some tacos and drove back to the motel where I rammed a pillar outside the motel office. I backed up and rammed it again then suffered a fit of uncontrollable laughter. The next thing I remember was two local cops helping me out of my truck. They were baffled when they gave me a field breathalyzer and it registered zero. I had enough presence of mind to walk them over to my room and show them the bottle of Ambien. They were familiar with the drug and told me not to do any more driving that night. They could have put me in jail. I had to pay about $300 for damage to the pillar which was concrete and stucco. The motel owner and the cops were gracious enough not to make a report. I discontinued the Ambien which resulted in weeks of semi-sleep but eventually things got back to normal.