Georgia Democratic congressional candidate Steven Foster is facing trial for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol on September 23, 2017, and he’s had quite the story regarding his activities that night. He and a female companion left an Applebee’s establishment that night and Foster claimed he forgot to put on his headlights; once he turned them on, police pulled him over, and that’s when things got weird.
Foster submitted to alcohol tests of his breath and blood, with both saying he was over the legal limit. His excuse? He drank two gin and tonics because he wanted the quinine in the tonic to treat a rare strain of malaria he picked up in Honduras when he volunteered their as a doctor … in 1998.
“The tonic acts as a prophylactic against the larvae,” Foster told Newsweek. “It’s semi-suppressant.”
Despite saying this, Foster also said his illness couldn’t be treated by anything, but hoped the tonic “may have some placebo effect.”
Foster’s medical license was indefinitely suspended in 2002 after he reportedly failed to complete physical and mental examinations. He was also the subject of a Criminal Investigation Department probe after he allegedly took two Naval ships from Panama without permission, in order to bring food and supplies to people while he was volunteering.
Foster claims that he had not been drunk since he was a groomsman at a wedding in 1981. The night of his arrest was one day after his birthday, and he was out celebrating. Police noted that he was out with his wife, but Foster that he was not married to the woman he was with that night.
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