Watch out Atlanta-- they're gearing up to arrest drivers under the influence of drugs

It appears as though NHTSA and the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety are switching gears to arrest drivers suspected of driving while under the influence of drugs.

As you know, it's illegal to drive if you have active or inactive metabolites of street drugs, that is, drugs that are illegal to possess no matter what (cocaine, heroin, meth).

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have medical marijuana laws; this means that under the doctrine of equal protection, if you could have obtained marijuana legally, and you are driving with inactive metabolites of marijuana in your system, you will probably avoid a DUI conviction.

Prosecutors still don't understand this concept. You see, the effects of marijuana, like alcohol, rise and fall over time. Someone who ingests marijuana on Tuesday will still show metabolites in urine on Saturday, but is likely no longer high. Someone who ingests marijuana at 6:00 p.m., however, is likely legally "high" at 8:00 p.m, but probably not after 10:00 p.m.

Most people do not go out and ingest marijuana when they know they have to drive later on. Unlike alcohol consumption, the medical community has determined when a person's blood alcohol level is so high, he cannot safely drive. The medical community cannot determine this with marijuana.

Georgia Crime Lab Toxicologists are neutral scientists, right?

Toxicologists, the folks who work at the Georgia Crime Lab, cannot tell when you're driving under the influence of your legally prescribed medications. Your personal physician can, based upon lab results, because dosages vary and an individual's response to medications differ. If your doctor wants you to take a particular medication, listen to the warnings your doctor offers; when you pick up the prescription, listen to the pharmacists recommendations regarding driving (or rather not driving until you know how the medication affects you personally).

But toxicologists, supposedly neutral scientists, remember that the State of Georgia issues a paycheck to them, just like it issues paychecks to the prosecutors. They think they're part of the prosecution team. They like to offer an opinion that you're incapable of driving safely based only on what the lab results say, and sometimes what the officer's testimony was (even though they didn't hear the testimony in court).

A great DUI defense attorney knows how to point out these flaws and work with your physician to point out how long you've been taking a particular drug, how it affects you, the warnings and counseling you received and how to find reasonable doubt in your case

Recently, one of my colleagues successfully pointed out that xanax, a commonly prescribed drug, can be ingested according to medical guidelines, without causing a driver to be automatically guilty of DUI because its metabolites are in a driver's blood or urine. He used the 1999 case I argued, Love vs. The State of Georgia to show that unless the driver is incapable of driving safely, a conviction is never right.

To see where the prosecutors are heading, check out this publication and its one-sided views.

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Atlanta DUI Lawyers Clark & Towne

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