How Bad Is It to Mix Booze and Painkillers?

Ah, friends. They're like family but cooler. Fully customizable. Fall and one of them will be right there to pick you back up. But as great as friends can be, they also do a lot of really stupid stuff. Stuff that blows your mind. Like, sometimes it seems crazy that you even hang out with people who make such crappy decisions. Stuff that, were it to get out, would be mortifying for anyone with even a shred of self-respect. Lucky for your friends, they've got you to ask their deepest, darkest questions for them. And lucky for you, we started this column to answer those most embarrassing of queries.

The scenario: It's Saturday morning, and your friend wakes up with a raging headache. His usual Pedialyte-plus-greasy brunch isn't going to cut it; he needs pharmaceutical-grade help. He reaches for a bottle of OTC painkillers and pops three, brushing off the boldfaced warnings that it say to take two and to skip it if you've had more than three drinks. His tally from last night came out to, oh, about three drinks times three, so you're convinced he might be putting his name on a liver transplant list any day now—both because he's taken too many pills and also because he clearly still has booze in his system.

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