Legal Possession of Cannabis Can Still Mean Criminal Charges for Drugged Driving
Just as young people today will never know the joy of receiving the gift of a mixtape of songs your friend taped off the radio, they will also never know the thrill of trying to argue that you have not been smoking weed, against all evidence to the contrary. My eyes are red because I am allergic to mangroves. The patchouli smell in the car is an olfactory fashion statement. This is a proprietary blend of mint, oregano, fenugreek, and verbena. I’m laughing because your face is funny. Today, adults do not need to resort to elementary school levels of creativity to convince authority figures that weed is not weed. Today, sometimes it is legal to call a joint a joint and to call a dimebag a dimebag. Florida’s statewide medical cannabis program is booming, and in some parts of the Sunshine State, including Orlando, you can possess a small quantity of weed just as legally as you can possess alcoholic beverages, as long as you are of legal age. Meanwhile, driving under the influence of cannabis remains just as illegal as driving under the influence of alcohol, even if you bought the cannabis legally. If you are facing criminal charges for driving under the influence, contact a Florida drug offenses attorney.
Cannabis Breathalyzer Tests Leave Room for Reasonable Doubt
If police suspect you of being under the influence of cannabis during a traffic stop, you have less to worry about than would have been the case 20 years ago, but you can still face criminal charges. In the old days, if police searched your car and found rolling papers and a nickel sack of weed, you could have faced charges for drugged driving, drug possession, and paraphernalia. Today, you would only face charges for drugged driving, but drugged driving still counts as a DUI.
In DUI cases involving alcohol, the defendant’s innocence or guilt depends on whether his or her blood alcohol content (BAC) was above 0.08 percent, and you can easily measure this with a breathalyzer test. The only way to complicate things is to refuse to take the breath test or to argue that the breathalyzer test results are inaccurate.
Breathalyzer tests also exist for cannabis, but they are less definitive when it comes to proving that you were under the influence of cannabis when you were driving. The cannabis metabolites they measure remain in the body for weeks after you use cannabis, whereas the intoxicating effects of a joint or a THC edible only last for a few hours. In other words, the breathalyzer test does not prove that you are currently high. It only proves that you were high sometime in the past month.
Contact FL Drug Defense Group About Drug Cases
A Central Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing charges for driving under the influence of cannabis. Contact FL Drug Defense Group in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
flhsmv.gov/drivebakedgetbusted/
