The State of California is aggressively cracking down on “Drugged Driving” – by changing DUI laws, training more officers, and teaching District Attorneys how to get more convictions – and make them stick.
Drug-impaired driving is getting more attention since the release of a Nov.19, 2012 OTS survey that found a whopping 1 in 7 California drivers (14%) Driving Under the Influence of DRUGS on weekend evenings — almost double the number of alcohol-impaired drivers during that same period (7.3%).
California’s “Drugged Driving” Crackdown and YOU…
Recent evidence that California is getting serious about drug-impaired driving…
- Landmark Legislation: On Sept. 29, 2012 Governor Brown signed AB 2552 into law. This new law moves each of the DUI categories – alcohol, drugs, and alcohol plus drugs – into separate sections of the vehicle code. The law is intended to make it easier to arrest and prosecute individuals driving under the influence of drugs – whether illegal and legal drugs.
- Statewide Officer Training: The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) have joined forces to provide specialized training to California police and CHP officers to help them detect and apprehend drug-impaired drivers – through programs like ARIDE (Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement) (1,600+ officers) and Drug Recognition Experts (DRE) (1,200+ officers).
- District Attorney Training: Regional Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutors are now training D.A. offices on how to successfully prosecute drug-impaired driving cases. D.A. offices are also creating “vertical prosecution” teams to follow drugged driving cases from arrest through trial — to insure that more DUI drugs prosecutions are successful
- Better Testing Equipment: Several California counties have received special funding to purchase or upgrade their drug testing equipment to state-of-the-art narcotics testing equipment.
I recently blogged about why it is difficult to prosecute DUI Drugs Driving cases. Toxicology testing is expensive, and drug testing results can be misleading, since drugs can remain in the system for days and weeks. And while there are specific legal limits for alcohol, there is no such limit for drugs, which makes it difficult to prosecute DUI drugs cases.
But that may be about to change. What do you think? Please post your comments below.
If you have been arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, be sure to protect yourself by hiring a DUI lawyer who has 10+ years of DUI trial experience and a track record for winning drugged driving cases within your specific court jurisdiction. Call me if you have any questions.
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