Posted on 06/22/2006 9:52:05 PM PDT by freepatriot32
Marijuana users can be arrested for drugged driving weeks after they toast a joint, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a Jackson County appeal.
A veteran prosecutor hailed the ruling as a correct interpretation of the zero-tolerance law that will make enforcement easier. A longtime defense attorney said the high court has opened the floodgates on overreaching government.
"This goes to show the Supreme Court does not seem to care about individual rights," Jackson attorney Jerry Engle said.
At issue were cases from Jackson and Grand Traverse counties. The local case involved the prosecution of Dennis Kurts for driving under the influence of marijuana.
Blackman Township police in February 2004 cited Kurts, 44, of Michigan Center, after he was stopped for driving erratically. He admitted smoking marijuana, police said. The time frame in which he smoked is unclear.
A blood test did not detect the narcotic THC, or tetrahydrrocannabinol, which is in marijuana. Instead, the test showed the presence of carboxy THC, a benign product of metabolism that can remain in the blood for a month after marijuana use.
Jackson County Circuit Judge Chad Schmucker dismissed the case in 2004 on the basis that the THC remnant was not an illegal controlled substance. Wednesday's ruling sends the case back to Schmucker's court.
"The Supreme Court makes it clear carboxy THC is a controlled substance, and the Michigan Legislature says it is against the law to drive with any controlled substance in the body," said Jerrold Schrotenboer, appellate attorney for Prosecutor Hank Zavislak.
Had the ruling gone the other way, prosecutors and defense attorneys would have to offer dueling expert witnesses to argue the issue, Schrotenboer said. The high court's ruling considers the THC derivative and the actual narcotic one in the same, rather than circumstantial evidence that a driver might have been high.
"This makes it vastly easier for prosecutors to convict on drugged-driving charges," Schrotenboer said.
That alarms Engle, who argued against Schrotenboer before the Supreme Court in January. Not all police and prosecutors use discretion, and some might see the same dollar signs that drive drunken-driving convictions, Engle said. The Legislature in recent years passed fees of up to $3,500 against drunken drivers, and those same fees apply to drugged driving, he said.
"Suppose someone runs a red light into your car. The cop asks if you have smoked marijuana in the last several weeks," Engle said. "A blood test shows carboxy THC. The other guy gets a traffic ticket, and you go to jail."
Somehow that doesn't look like Michigan.
Sir, your wit fails to cover your total lack of understanding of the topic under discussion.
And should follow your own advice. That garbage article you posted was absurd, particularly this tidbit.
The active substance in cannabis, thujone, creates Atrial natriuretic peptides which stimulates the consequent reactions in the body.
You need to do some research on thujone
before you go making ridiculous statements.
Except from link below:
"The toxicity of thujone in the brain is believed to result from its structural similarity to tetrahydrocannibinol, or THC (3) , the active compound in marijuana. ...Thujone and THC have similar shapes, and it is believed that they interact with the same biological receptor to produce their similar psychological effects"
http://www.phc.vcu.edu/Feature/oldfeature/thuj/thujone.html
So, in your opinion, the active ingredient in cannabis is really thujone? Otherwise I'm not entirely sure what point you're trying to prove.
Along with everything else, the Russians now claim to have invented ditchweed.
Read the original article for the good news.
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/20/nocannabis.shtml
According to the article, the "good news" is they've "invented" cannibis with no thujone in it. Are we supposed to be impressed?
The article would indicate that they have developed Thujone free cannabis.
This will truly change our world.
Everything Has Its Time
1 To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3 (New King James Version)
A time to grow cannabis,
a time to harvest it,
a time to cure it,
and a time to smoke it.
No, but does that one mistaken impression invalidate his approach to crime overall?
yes. Authoritarian laws should never stay on the books no matter if they are right or wrong.
Call it what you will...thujone or THC---anything that can help develop and replace the wild growing and potent marijuana plant is great and will help save many lives.
It won't work here. The federal government has a self-imposed madate to eradicate every hemp plant that isn't under direct federal supervision. We've got wild growing hemp that's got a THC content low enough to be pretty well worthless for drug content already, and they're out there cutting and burning that as fast as they can find it now.
TOL said the same for LSD, except for the thousands of years part.
I have 34 years of experience with cannabis and zero experience with the LSD (or any other powders, pills or injectables) - but - I ran a search for "TOL" "LSD". I came up with a relatively informative video site that shows film of persons under the influence of the various substances.
From what I saw, LSD seems to be powerful enough to virtually paralyze the user. I have never seen any cannabis that could do that.
In brief - I would say that LSD has the potential to be much more dangerous than cannabis.
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