Search Results: zero tolerance DUI (38)

Addy, driving stoned on a closed course in Wash.

For the millions of people who now use marijuana legally under their states’ laws, driving in Arizona is technically a crime.
Motorists with pot metabolites in their bloodstreams who want to avoid a marijuana DUI — which comes with nasty fines and a one-year suspension of driving privileges, instead of the regular 90 days for booze DUIs — may want to consult this quick primer over at the Phoenix New Times.

Via sd34.senate.ca.gov/
Senator Lou Correa

Under a new law proposed by State Senator Lou Correa, it would become illegal in California for a person to drive a vehicle if his or her blood contains any detectable amount of marijuana. This includes medical marijuana, so card holders wouldn’t be exempt from this “zero tolerance” policy. Furthermore, considering marijuana can be detected in one’s system weeks after use, it’s entirely possible a driver could be slapped with a DUI charge after the effects are long gone. LA Weekly has the story.

THC Finder

​A bill that would establish a zero-tolerance driving under the influence (DUI) standard for marijuana has been introduced in the California Legislature.

The bill, AB 2552, sponsored by Norma Torres (D-Pomona), would make any driver found with above-zero levels of cannabinoids in blood or urine presumptively guilty of DUI.
“Since cannabinoids remain in the system for days or weeks after last use, the bill would effectively outlaw driving by every marijuana user in the state,” said Dale Gieringer of California NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).


Medical-marijuana patients are still at risk for a DUI conviction simply for having trace amounts of THC in their bloodstreams, the state Court of Appeals confirmed on Tuesday.
In a 3-0 ruling with disclaimers by one judge, the court upheld the conviction of a Mesa man despite an apparent exception for such prosecutions in the voter-approved, 2010 medical-pot law.
Arizona, if you haven’t heard, has a zero-tolerance law against drivers with marijuana metabolites in their veins, medical card or not. Our May 2013 feature article, “Riding High,” covered how it was possible for patients or illegal cannabis users to be convicted for DUI even when impairment wasn’t a factor, and even when the only metabolite found was carboxy-THC, a molecule known to be inactive.

Photo: Alejandro Mejía Greene/JubiloHaku via Flickr Creative Commons


The Public Safety Committee in the California state legislature shot down AB2500 last week, a bill crafted by Assemblyman Jim Frazier that would have made driving with any trace of THC in your system illegal, and punishable by DUI conviction.
Frazier attempted to lump cannabis in with actual drugs like meth, cocaine, and heroin in a bill that was unreasonably strict, even after Frazier’s original language for it got slashed for being so unjust.

Flickr/Alex E. Proimos.


Arizonans no longer risk getting a DUI for driving with an inactive metabolite of marijuana in their blood following a ruling by the state’s high court.
The Arizona Supreme Court announced this morning that it was reaffirming the trial court’s decision to dump the case of Hrach Shilgevorkyan, who was prosecuted for driving while impaired after a blood test revealed the presence of marijuana. New Times covered the case and overall issue in detail in the Phoenix New Times May 2013 article “Riding High.

Oklahoma toughened their marijuana driving laws this week, creating a limit of zero THC in a driver’s blood and setting it as a per se limit. That means that if you have any marijuana or marijuana metabolites in your system whatsoever, you’re guilty of driving under the influence.
So, if it wasn’t already on your list of life rules, you should add DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH OKLAHOMA on there. Sorry Oklahoman’s but your state is about as far from being okay with marijuana as it gets.

Bail Bonds Guys
This scene, unfortunately, is likely to play out many times in Washington state with legal marijuana and a strict new DUI rule. Here’s how you can improve your chances

By Anthony Martinelli
Communications Director
Initiative 502 has passed in Washington State, with portions of the measure becoming law on December 6th of this year (the one-ounce decrim and the new DUID mandate). The rest will follow a year later. Regardless of what side of the debate you were on, this is the reality of our current cannabis policies in Washington State. Part of Initiative 502 will soon be law.
We first want to congratulate those behind this initiative on their success. National headlines proclaiming that “Washington State Has Legalized Marijuana” will benefit the movement, and decriminalization of an ounce will stop many unneeded misdemeanors.
That said, we opposed this initiative for good reason. Rhetoric and politics aside, the new driving under the influence of drugs policy for THC, which is per se (meaning your blood level, not actual impairment, is the determining factor for guilt), will ensnare innocent individuals, especially patients, and especially those under 21, for whom it’s a zero tolerance policy.

Regulate Marijuana Like Wine
Retired LAPD Deputy Chief Stephen Downing: “Enacting this legislation would not only be disastrous for our state’s legal medical marijuana patients, but would impede public safety for all Californians by distracting police from catching actually dangerous drivers”

Law Enforcers Say Bill Would Criminalize Legal Medical Marijuana Patients & Distract Police

Patients Would Face Mandatory 10-Year Prison Term With Third ‘DUI’ — While Not Impaired
A group of former California police officers, prosecutors and judges on Tuesday issued a letter asking Assemblymember Norma Torres to withdraw a bill she introduced that would criminalize driving with any amount of cannabinoids in the body.
The criminal justice professionals, members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), say that the standards created by the bill have nothing to do with actual impairment behind the wheel and will criminalize the state’s legal medical marijuana patients.
“Zero tolerance has a nice ring to it, but most all applications of this overused (and clichéd) concept result in harmful unintended consequences,” the letter reads in part. “Zero tolerance relieves the decision-maker of the burden of making sound legal judgments and routinely produces more harm than good.

NY Daily News

​The recurring debate and driving while high is back in the spotlight in the Colorado Legislature, where a Senate committee voted Monday to endorse a proposal setting what they are inaccurately calling “a scientific standard” for deciding whether drivers are impaired by marijuana.

The bill says drivers would be considered per se guilty of driving under the influence of cannabis if they test positive for five nanograms or more of THC per milliliter of blood, reports Deb Stanley at The Denver Channel. There’s nothing “scientific” about that arbitrary cutoff point, of course, and any sane standard for DUI marijuana would include actual impairment in the equation.
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