USA Today recently ran a piece about the fact that in several states people are getting charged with DUI even though they are completely sober. As the article notes, this is what happens “science meets politics”. In Arizona and 9 other states people are being charged with DUI for being “over the limit” when their urine is tested and comes back positive for the secondary metabolite of marijuana. The problem is that having the metabolite in your urine means that the marijuana has been processed by the body and expelled into the urine. The substance is no longer “psycho-active”, that is it no longer is affecting the person’s mental or physical abilities to drive a car. Yet, they are being convicted for DUI, being thrown in jail and losing their licenses for long periods of time. A person that smokes marijuana, or otherwise ingests the drug, is under its influence for a matter of hours. But, the metabolite stays present in the person’s urine for around 30 days. So, a person could legally smoke pot in a place where it is legal, like 2 states in America, or pursuant to a medical marijuana prescription, or in another country, and still be positive for the metabolite 2 or 3 weeks later. Under the laws of these states the person cannot drive or they risk a DUI even though they are in no way intoxicated. This is especially problematic in places like Arizona where medical marijuana is legal. The patients can’t use their medicine or they are rendered unable to drive for weeks. It kind of defeats the purpose.
The politicians and courts have lost sight of the principle that the DUI laws exist to protect the public from dangerous drivers. The Arizona law is apparently just in service to get convictions regardless of reality. It would be like saying that someone who drank alcohol a week ago is still DUI if he or she were to drive a car long after the effects of the alcohol had worn off. In fact, in Arizona, the driver’s license suspension is apparently much longer for a DUI based on marijuana than it is for a DUI as a result of alcohol. That means people who were not actually intoxicated when driving are punished more harshly than those who actually were. How is this making the roads safer?
It is not. The Kansas legislature considered a bill a few years ago that would have set certain limits for drugs that would create a per se DUI in Kansas similar to the legal limit for alcohol of .08. Luckily, that has not become the law yet. However, with more states legalizing marijuana, like our neighbor Colorado, we are likely to see more people getting arrested for DUI in Kansas based on marijuana and it may not be long until they again consider putting a number on it. A legal limit number, or outlawing even having the metabolite in your system in any amount while operating a car, makes it far easier to get a conviction than to show that a person is actually impaired while driving. Politics doesn’t like science. Science is always subject to discussion concerning theories, methods and results. Some people don’t want discussion or even reality. Unfortunately, Arizona seems to be in that camp right now.