How Marijuana Legalization is Changing the Face of DUI

HOW MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION IS CHANGING THE FACE OF DUI Marijuana legalization has been the talk of the town recently, but with it comes new laws dictating what is and is not a DUI. It comes down to one question: how much marijuana is too much? The answer is a little complicated. First, you have to look at how they test for THC in a user's bloodstream and how these tests affect instances when they're caught for driving under the influence of drugs. MARIJUANA LAWS IN DIFFERENT STATES EFFECT-BASED LAWS Prosecutors must be able to prove that the driver's impairment was directly associated with the ingestion of marijuana. PER SE LAWS The driver has exceeded the legal limit of THC and/or marijuana metabolites in their system. ZERO-TOLERANCE PER SE LAWS Any presence of THC and/or marijuana metabolites can lead to a conviction. URINE TEST BLOOD TEST HAIR TEST BREATH TEST Depending on how much and how often you smoke or ingest marijuana, THC can stay in your blood for 12 hours to 7 days. Attempts to create a device that can detect THC accurately has With a single use, it's doubtful that marijuana will be detectable in your hair. For the regular marijuana smoker, While an occasional smoker's urine may test positive for 1 to 7 days after a toke, a been in the works for some time. heavy smoker can expect positive results 7 to 100 days from the last time they used. This is what we know about the drug could stick to your current marijuana breathalyzers: hair follicles for months. • They can give readings on THC in the system if it's used 30 minutes to 2.5 hours prior to UNRELIABLE FOR RELIABLE FOR UNRELIABLE FOR administering the test. DUID TESTING DUID TESTING DUID TESTING • Scientists still haven't completely figured out how drugs get into a person's breath and how long they stay there. LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT ORAL SWAB TEST This test instantly provides results indicating if an individual used drugs in the past few hours. THC can be detected using these tests for up to To put that in perspective,in the past year there were Over the course of the 2013 holiday season, an astounding With police and state officials scrambling to find a reliable way to test for immediate THC level 598 DUI cases 1,500 were arrested readings, L.A. has found their temporary answer: The oral swab. 48 hours. that involved drugs in L.A. for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Sources: http://www.canorml.org/ | http://rt.com/ | http://norml.org TESTING TYPES