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April Fools: LIVR Reverse Breathalyzer Blacks Out Bad Behavior

The LIVR app encourages heavy drinking.

There’s a new smartphone accessory that will measure your blood-alcohol content to let you know if you’ve had too much to drink.

And if you have congratulations! You’re in! A BAC above the legal limit for driving gains you entry into the LIVR app’s social network, like the doorman has waved you into the club.  You access the app by blowing into a breathalyzer that plugs into the charging port of a phone.  The app offers features like “Drunk Dial,”  which randomly connects two inebriated partiers, and “Truth or Dare,”  which connects users to crowd-sourced activities daring them to accomplish a task, earning LIVR points when they do.  “Hot Spots” features maps to the nearest bars and clubs with the most intoxicated patrons. There’s also a blackout button that wipes all evidence, including photos and call history, from the device.

Sound like an extraordinarily bad idea?  It is. The LIVR app is a hoax intended to fool the media and Silicon Valley developers. But drinking too much alcohol is nothing to joke about. It increases people’s risk of injuries, violence, drowning, liver disease and some types of cancer. This April, during Alcohol Awareness Month, Elements Behavioral Health encourages you to educate yourself and your loved ones about the dangers of drinking too much.

Alcohol use by young people is particularly dangerous and is directly associated with traffic fatalities, violence, suicide, poor grades, alcohol overdose and unsafe sex. Each year, more than 6,500 people under the age of 21 die from alcohol-related accidents and thousands more are injured, according to the National Council on Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

A new interactive simulated drinking app “If I Drink…” provides a first-person virtual experience that shows just how severely alcohol can affect your ability to drive a car, as well as ride a bike or walk the line at different BAC levels, ranging from sober to extremely intoxicated. The app also describes the potential legal consequences based on current state law.

Additionally:

“Underage drinking is a complex issue,” said Greg Muth, chairperson of the NCADD board of directors, “one that can only be solved through a sustained and cooperative effort. As a nation, we need to wake up to the reality that for some, alcoholism and addiction develop at a young age and that intervention, treatment, and recovery support are essential for them and their families,” Muth said in a news release. “We can’t afford to wait any longer.”

Here are some strategies to help you cut back or stop drinking:

A disclaimer at the bottom of the LIVR site says: “Do not drink and drive. Do not drink excessively. Excessive consumption of alcohol may cause irreparable damage or harm to your body and may be lethal.”

Even the prankers get it.