Interesting. I wondered how they’ll deal with this:
The State of Pennsylvania has seen a dramatic increase in the number of drug-related vehicle deaths – so much so that the percentage of those killed with drugs in their systems exceeded the percentage of those killed with alcohol in their systems in 2016: 44 percent to 38 percent, respectively. These numbers are a stark reminder that intoxication is not the sole purview of alcohol anymore. They also present an opportunity to examine how intoxication from a drug standpoint can be measured.
Testing for alcohol impairment is common and is often performed using a breathalyzer, which analyzes and reports the blood-alcohol content of the individual under suspicion. Currently, however, no breath-based system is widely used for measuring the level of other drugs in the system of an individual – leaving the determination to law enforcement and blood tests.
“Most police departments rely on their officers and the training those officers receive to make appropriate stops and arrests for driving under the influence of drugs,” said Amato Sanita, a Pennsylvania DUI Attorney. Without a national standard for drug impairment – as there is with alcohol – individual departments have to teach officers how to identify when someone is under the influence of drugs and how to apply that training in the field. As a measurement of the drugs in an individual’s system can only be made through blood testing, meaning that the officer will have to have probable cause regarding the individual’s intoxication to arrest them and test their blood.
In Pennsylvania, driving with a Schedule I controlled substance in your system is against the law. Common Schedule I drugs include marijuana and heroin. With the more states legalizing marijuana use, individuals that legally acquire and consume marijuana in one place – such as Washington, D.C. – run the risk of violating the law in Pennsylvania by simply driving into the state days after consuming the drug.
One primary question then becomes: what about medications that I am prescribed? Can I be charged with DUI with prescription medications in my system? The short answer is yes, but it highlights the issues related to drug-related DUI. Individuals may not be aware of how a medication may affect them, or of the impact it is having on their functional capacity. Additionally, individuals that drive with prescription drugs in their systems that were not prescribed for them are in violation of Pennsylvania’s DUI law.
The issues with drug-related DUI are clear: it is a problem that needs to be addressed, but individuals need to have a clear understanding of what constitutes a violation of the law in order for stops and arrests to be valid. As it currently stands, the law and its application have a long way to go, and as damaging as any DUI charge and conviction can be to an individual, experienced legal counsel is critical to anyone facing such a charge.
