SAN DIEGO, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/Reuters -- San Diego DUI lawyer Lawrence Taylor claims
that California DUI laws should not be applied to marijuana usage. Unlike
alcohol and many drugs, he says, marijuana probably does not impair driving.
Taylor, known nationally as "The Dean of DUI Attorneys," argues that although
it has always been assumed that cannabis, like alcohol, affects the ability to
safely operate a motor vehicle, the studies do not support that.
On the one hand, the California Department of Justice has found that marijuana
impairs psychomotor abilities that are functionally related to driving,
particularly at high-dose levels or among inexperienced users. ("Marijuana and
Alcohol: A Driver Performance Study," California Office of Traffic Safety
Project No. 087902)
However, the San Diego DUI defense attorney points out, two federal studies
contradict this.
In one, the U.S. Department of Transportation conducted DUI research with a
fully interactive simulator on the effects of alcohol and marijuana, alone and
in combination, on driver-controlled behavior and performance. Although
alcohol was found consistently and significantly to cause impairment,
marijuana had only an occasional effect.
Accidents and speeding tickets reliably increased with alcohol, but no
marijuana or combined alcohol-marijuana influence was noted. ("The Effects of
Alcohol on Driver-Controlled Behavior in a Driving Simulator, Phase
I"(DOT-HS-806-414).)
Taylor, who heads a large firm of DUI attorneys with offices in Los Angeles,
San Diego, Orange County, Riverside and San Francisco, points to another more
recent report. Entitled "Marijuana and Actual Performance" (DOT-HS-808-078),
it also found that "THC is not a profoundly impairing drug....It apparently
affects controlled information processing in a variety of laboratory tests,
but not to the extent which is beyond the individual's ability to control when
he is motivated and permitted to do so in driving."
The researchers found that it "appears not possible to conclude anything about
a driver's impairment on the basis of his/her plasma concentrations of THC and
THC-COOH determined in a single sample."
THC, Taylor explains, is the intoxicating ingredient in marijuana, and is
fairly quickly converted by the body into inactive metabolites -- which can
stay in the body for hours or even days. But it is these metabolites that
police are measuring in blood tests taken after drunk driving arrests.
In other words, the San Diego DUI lawyer says, (1) marijuana may not impair
driving ability at all, and (2) the blood "evidence" only measures an inactive
substance which may have been there for days.
No comments:
Post a Comment