This Thursday, July 31, Augustine Apraku, a young father from London, was surrounded by a crowd of journalists. For good reason, he became the first Briton to wear an electronic bracelet measuring the blood alcohol level, also called “sobriety bracelet”.
Launched by Boris Johnson, current Mayor of London, this device attached to the ankle measures theblood alcohol every thirty minutes, via the sweat of the wearer. If the test is positive, an alarm is sent to a control center, which then contacts the police.
This experiment, a direct consequence of the 2012 law authorizing the courts to “prohibit all alcohol consumption” for persons arrested while intoxicated, will be extended to the whole of the United Kingdom if the test is successful. For the moment, the device will concern four districts of the capital, and will be offered to 150 people.
This sobriety bracelet does not, however (or not yet) target chronic alcoholics, explained Boris Johnson, but more those who commit excesses on weekends, a source of crime and fights in downtown London.
For the time being, the London associations fighting againstalcoholism did not really oppose this measure, as long as it does not replace the treatments offered to patients.
As for Augustine Apraku, the first to wear the bracelet, he said he was happy to play the guinea pig, and thus be “always free”, while affirming that he will not drink a drop of alcohol.
