Since the days of ancient Rome, psychotic delinquents have received special treatment by the law and held less or not at all legally responsible, apparently because insanity has been regarded as involuntary. The state of a person influenced by alcohol or drugs may be more or less equal to an acute psychosis. However, intoxication is generally no excuse in the court – unless the forensic psychiatrist diagnoses a state of abnormal or pathological intoxication. The reliability of this diagnosis has been disputed almost since its earliest mentioning in the 1860's. The survival of the diagnosis into the ICD-10 (F 10.07) calls for a penal act that can handle it. The Danish Penal Act since 1975 has offered a sensible, medico-legal compromise to the conflict between law and psychiatry that is imposed by alcohol and drugs. In general, insanity because of psychosis renders the defendant not punishable (Section 16,1,1). However, if the psychosis was due to intoxication, punishment is - depending on circumstances – possible (Section 16,1,3).