Tag Archives: DUI marijuana

Image source: National Eye Institute https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Checking_Blood_Sample_(9955279835).jpg Can a patient seeking care at a hospital give a blood sample for the purposes of acquiring medical treatment while retaining their Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure of that sample of blood by the police? According to a recent Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals decision[1], the official answer is still unclear. On February 16, 2013, an Alabama driver struck and severely injured a pedestrian. The police arrived on the scene, and ... Read More »

The national trend toward marijuana legalization results in more drivers with THC in their systems. Law enforcement agencies currently test for THC at a laboratory after a driver is arrested for DUI (called ‘OVI’ in Ohio). Law enforcement desires to use a device to test for THC before a driver is arrested, and the instruments used in crime labs are much too large to be used in the field. That creates a market for companies to manufacture roadside THC testers. ... Read More »

On August 27, 2020, Florida legalized edible medical marijuana. This significant law broadens the THC options available to qualified patients as well as provides alternatives to smoking medical marijuana, which was legalized in 2019. THC is the psychoactive compound in cannabis (marijuana) that provides treatment benefits for patients suffering from certain medical conditions. It comes in various forms, including edibles, which are cannabis-infused foods and beverages. Florida’s new edible medical marijuana law includes the following rules: No primary or bright colors in ... Read More »

In September 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously ruled that police cannot give testimony that, in the officer’s opinion, a driver was under the influence of marijuana based on their on-scene observations, including sobriety tests. The court found that there is no consensus in the scientific community that roadside sobriety tests prove someone is under the influence of marijuana. The judges noted that the effects of marijuana “vary greatly from one individual to another, and those effects are as ... Read More »

The effects of alcohol intoxication are relatively well-known, and they are also relatively universal among different people. The amount of alcohol concentration in one’s bloodstream that causes these effects differs among each of us (e.g. tolerance). Moreover, the amount of time it takes to experience these effects is dependent upon a number of factors such as how quickly the alcohol is consumed, the amount of food in one’s stomach, etc. Nonetheless, all states[1] in the U.S. have adopted the 0.08% ... Read More »

One day after the Massachusetts House voted to raise the proposed tax on retail marijuana sales to 28 percent, the Senate overwhelmingly voted (30-5) to preserve the 12 percent maximum endorsed by voters in a ballot question last November. The proposed legislation is now headed to a conference committee with hopes that a final bill will be sent to the Governor by next Friday, June 30. The selling of marijuana for recreational purposes is currently illegal in Massachusetts but the ... Read More »

Imagine you are pulled over and suspected of driving under the influence of an intoxicant (DUI or DWI). The Officer decides he has probable cause to arrest you for DUI, and pursuant to your state’s implied consent law, he requests that you provide a sample of urine to determine the alcohol and/or drug contents in your system. Again, he specifically requests a urine test, not a breath test or a blood test to determine the amount of alcohol, prescribed medication, ... Read More »

There has been a lot of media attention lately to the development of breath-testing devices that claim to provide law enforcement with the ability to detect and measure the presence and amounts of marijuana in a driver suspected of so-called “stoned driving”.  The accuracy of these devices has yet to be widely-accepted in the scientific community.  See, for example, Is It Possible to Prove Driving Under the Influence of Drugs?   Will science and profit-hungry corporations ever be able to ... Read More »

Last year, Senate Democrats in Colorado killed a bill that would have made repeat DUI offenses a felony offense in Colorado, much to the surprise and chagrin of the proposed law’s supporters. But now a Weld County state representative is trying again, with a new bill that, if passed, would classify a charged driver’s third DUI in seven years as a class 4 felony.  A class 4 felony carries a 2-6 year prison sentence followed by a mandatory 5 year period of parole.  The ... Read More »

Arapahoe County prosecutors have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision by a District Court judge and the Colorado Supreme Court, which found that because the officer did not try to obtain a warrant before she ordered a blood draw on Schaufele, the results may not be presented as evidence. Thirteen other states have also filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to pick up the case. If the high court takes up the case, their decision will have national ... Read More »