THCtakeout

Medical Marijuana and Driving Under the Influence

Even though transportation of medical marijuana is legal under state law, it is still illegal to drive while "under the influence" of marijuana. Police that are hostile toward medical marijuana patients will often use a "driving under the influence" (DUI) charge as a form of harassment. Therefore, it is important that you take precautionary measures when driving. These measures include: not medicating immediately before or while driving (it's illegal); not keeping partially consumed marijuana in the vehicle; keeping any marijuana locked in the trunk; not admitting to being a patient or in possession of medial marijuana unless asked (you are under no obligation to provide such information); and, most important of all, not indicating to an officer the last time you consumed medical marijuana.

Once you indicate that you consumed medical marijuana regardless of how recently, it becomes subjective judgment by the officer as to whether you are "intoxicated," and therefore unable to drive. You are under no obligation to tell the police the last time you medicated and you should refrain from doing so. If a police officer initiates the process of investigating your sobriety/intoxication, there are options available to you. There is no breathalyzer for marijuana; you may be told to take a "field sobriety test" (FST), urine or blood test. Since traces of marijuana will remain in urine for as long as 30 days, and in blood for 1-3 days, neither of these tests will define a window of "toxicity" narrow enough to provide solid evidence of impairment to convict in court. You can also refuse to take these tests, but you will likely have to submit to one of the three. If the FST is chosen, make sure that you will not appear impaired because of your medical condition. If you are confident that you will pass an FST, you may want to request that the test be filmed, eliminating the possibility of biased testimony by the officer.

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