§ 24.06 Involuntary Intoxication

§24.06 Involuntary Intoxication⁷⁰

[A] Definition

Intoxication is "involuntary" (or "innocent") if the actor is not to blame for becoming intoxicated.⁷¹ According to one scholar, if we judge the state of legal affairs from court opinions, involuntary intoxication is "simply and completely non-existent."⁷² Although this is an exaggeration, cases of successful assertion of involuntary intoxication claims are exceedingly uncommon.

As described in City of Minneapolis v. Altimus,⁷³ intoxication is characterized as "involuntary" in four circumstances.⁷⁴ First, intoxication is deemed involuntary if the person is coerced to ingest an intoxicant, such as when B, a youth, was told that he would be left in the desert if he did not drink alcohol.⁷⁵

Second, intoxication is involuntary if the person ingests an intoxicant by innocent mistake, e.g., X fraudulently induces P to ingest cocaine by telling him that it is a "breath freshener."⁷⁶

Third, blame is inappropriate if the actor becomes unexpectedly intoxicated from a prescribed medication, i.e., he does not know, and has no reason to know, that the medication is likely to have an intoxicating effect.⁷⁷ However, if the actor purposely takes more than the prescribed medication, the jury may find that the intoxication is voluntary.⁷⁸

Fourth, "pathological intoxication" is involuntary. Pathological intoxication is "intoxication grossly excessive in degree, given the amount of the intoxicant, to which the actor does not know he is susceptible."⁷⁹ It is often the result of some pre-disposing mental or physical condition, e.g., temporal lobe epilepsy, encephalitis, or a metabolic disturbance.⁸⁰

[B] General Rule

A person who is involuntarily intoxicated is entitled to acquittal in all of the circumstances in which voluntary intoxication is a defense. Although there is exceedingly little case law on the matter, it would seem that because the actor's intoxication was contracted in a nonculpable manner, he should also be acquitted of any general-intent offense.⁸¹

In contrast to the principles relating to voluntary intoxication,⁸² a defendant is also excused for his conduct if, as the result of involuntary intoxication, he is "temporarily insane," i.e., he suffers from a temporary intoxication-induced mental condition that satisfies that jurisdiction's definition of insanity.⁸³

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Notes:

^[70] See generally Lawrence P. Tiffany & Mary Tiffany, Nosologic Objections to the Criminal Defense of Pathological Intoxication: What Do...