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'Drugged Driver' Law Facing Court Challenges
Originally posted by CN Staff on May 31, 2004 at 08:29:30 PT
By David Doege
Source: Journal Sentinel
Posted on Marijuana.com by Greenbud

A new law aimed at so-called drugged drivers is facing constitutional challenges as the first prosecutions under the legislation go to court.
Instead of establishing a threshold by which drivers who have used illegal substances could be judged to be impaired, lawmakers have made it unlawful for drivers to have "any detectable amount" of drugs such as cocaine, marijuana and Ecstasy in their bloodstreams.

Those words are now the targets of defense attorneys.

"Unlike consumers of alcohol for which empirical evidence shows a relationship between blood level and impairment, drug users can be penalized for the mere use of a restricted substance even after considerable time has passed, so long as it is allegedly detected even under what is here an undefined standard," defense attorney Laurence M. Moon wrote in a case involving a Milwaukee man being prosecuted under the law. "This discrepancy is irrational."

Moon is not the only attorney expected to raise the constitutionality question. Attorney Bruce Jacobson, who is representing a man being prosecuted under the law in Waukesha County Circuit Court, said he is considering filing the same motion.

"It is very typical for the question to be raised about whether the new law is constitutional," said Janine Geske, a distinguished professor at Marquette University Law School and former state Supreme Court justice. "Because this law is not like operating while intoxicated and there is no specified amount, I think that is a serious, legitimate issue to raise.

"Whether it will rise to the level of making it unconstitutional remains to be seen."

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Walworth County, where a motorist has already been convicted under the law, have decided that drivers sentenced for having illegal drugs in their system ought to be treated akin to drunken drivers with high blood-alcohol concentrations.

"We discussed this within the office, partly because it's so difficult to determine the levels at which impairment takes effect," Walworth County District Attorney Phillip A. Koss said. "We're taking the approach that these drivers should be placed at the high end of the sentencing range because we have no way of measuring impairment and because these drugs are illegal to begin with."

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Higher Self

It won't take much to prove what a thoughtless law this is. When cops start arresting folks who are not impaired, and states begin prosecuting enough people, it will be demonstrated though.

Only the most narrow-minded, conservative thinking, ignorant people would condone such behaviour, which is barely short of witch-hunting. To say that only illegal drugs cause impairment is ridiculous.

What a law like this does, besides disrupt and ruin lives, is continue to drive an alienation wedge right into it's people, causing further di(vision).

At a time when the world is at a crisis stage, insanity looms large... Soicial policy of this nature will do nothing but exacerbate problems.

This kind of legislation is a violation of freedom and congnitive liberty, not to mention inspiration for revolt among the populous.

StewScum

Just another means of control, soon people are going to be getting Public Intoxications after being tested for a drug in the blood stream. Our freedom is being crapped on.

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Life is like a pot of stew, if you don't stir it up every once and a while, all the scum rises to the top -Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins.

grasscloud657

i dont know how much longer i can hold my anger in with this country's bull****, day by day our freedom is being destroyed, think how bad this country is going to be 50 years from now

Hiz Highness

Since urinalysis can detect mj in the system of a heavy user up to 30-90 days after they quit I don't see how this law could even be considered. Suppose a heavy smoker quits . . . a month later he's pulled over. For whatever reason they test him for drugs and he tests positive for mj. This guy is going to get slapped with drugged driving charges, even though he hasn't touched anything in a month.

Is this what is passing for "justice" these days?

-HH

 

Dennis

It's a shame that we have to fight these laws in court. We must confront the legislatures toe-to-toe on a state and federal level.

We are going to be left with no other alternative but to confront our legislators, insist they stop making these laws, and run against them for office, or back someone else for office if they persist in fleecing the American population of their rights.

That's the only avenue that will work against their tyranny.


Dennis

ChiefSmokin

O M G...........................

Cassius

For that matter, one could take a vacation to a country WHERE IT IS LEGAL, come home, get pulled over and test positive.

YET YOU COMMITTED NO CRIME. You were following all of the laws of the jurisdiction of wherever you were at.

freshair

You would be breaking the law. The law being made says you can't have drugs in your system in the area you are. You are not free to have any drug in your system and enter the area or you will suffer for it if you are found out. IT IS NOT YOUR BLOOD ANYMORE TO JUST PUT ANYTHING INTO IT. The government owns you now. you are not free your ass belongs to someone. your blood is not your own.

WNB

You know, I'm happier every day that I'm still allowed to own a gun.

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