When does overconsumption of alcohol become a sin?

[blaskoman]

I’m not a big drinker, but on occassion I can over do it with alcohol. Is it a mortal sin to drink to excess to the point where one is completely smashed? (ie, in such a state where one is at the point of passing out; unable to properly reason). There are gradations to drinking. It seems that there is a fine line to feeling slighly tipsy to becoming even more tipsy and lightheading to becoming drunk to becoming completely smashed. I realize that that drinking a few drinks cannot qualify as sinful, yet when does the act of overindulging in alcohol consumption become a sin (and possibly even a mortal one)?

 

[LilyM]

Deliberate drunkenness (getting ‘smashed’) is indeed a grave sin. Like all grave sins, it requires full knowledge and full consent to become mortal sin.

Having even one drink can indeed be sinful for one who, say, has liver disease and for that reason can’t handle their alcohol, or who from past experience knows that they never or hardly ever stop at just one. So where the point lies depends on your self-knowledge and self-control.

In general the point is reached when you know either

a) that you’re already drunk, but decide to consume more alcohol anyway, or

b) know that one more drink will certainly (or almost certainly) make you drunk, and decide to have that one more anyway.