[Slakah]

%s in a patterns matches a space so instead of replacing it with %s- you would instead probably need to replace it with a .+, I know cargor probably knows this and has just made a silly mistake :P

local patterns = {}
local limit = 4
for i = 1, limit do
    patterns[(i*2)-1] = _G["DRUNK_MESSAGE_ITEM_OTHER"..i]:gsub("%%s", "%s-")) -- odd 
    patterns[i*2] = _G["DRUNK_MESSAGE_OTHER"..i]:gsub("%%s", "%s-") -- even
end
 
local function intox(f, e, msg)
    for i = 1, limit * 2 do
        if msg:find(pattern) then
            return true
        end
    end
    return false
end
 
ChatFrame_AddMessageEventFilter("CHAT_MSG_SYSTEM", intox)

is what I would use.

edit: Grrrr why on earth can't [highlight] handle parenthesis .