Posted on 07/02/2006 4:39:39 PM PDT by neverdem
Should last week’s joint disqualify a pot smoker from driving today?
A police officer pulls you over at a checkpoint and asks, "Have you been drinking?" Assuming he wants to know whether you have consumed alcohol in the last few hours, such that it might be affecting your ability to drive, you say no. "Not at all?" he asks. Well, you admit, you did have a beer the night before, whereupon he arrests you for driving under the influence.
If that scenario makes sense to you, you should have no problem with Michigan's new policy regarding driving and drug use. As recently interpreted by the state Supreme Court, Michigan law prohibits marijuana smokers from driving long after the drug's psychoactive effects have disappeared. A dozen states have similar policies, and federal drug officials think all of them should, which would in effect revoke or periodically suspend the driver's licenses of more than 25 million Americans.
Michigan law bars someone from driving "if the person has in his or her body any amount of a controlled substance listed in schedule 1," which includes marijuana, THC (marijuana's main active ingredient), and their "derivatives." So even before last week's decision by the Michigan Supreme Court, unimpaired drivers could be arrested with tiny, inconsequential traces of THC in their blood. In contrast with this "zero tolerance" rule, the legal cutoff for drinkers is a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent.
The Michigan Supreme Court made the double standard worse by declaring that 11-carboxy-THC, a nonpsychoactive marijuana metabolite that can remain in a person's blood or urine for days or weeks, counts as a forbidden THC "derivative." The upshot is that many regular marijuana smokers can never legally drive in Michigan, whether they're intoxicated or not, while occasional smokers are barred from driving for days after each dose.
"It is irrelevant that an 'ordinary' marijuana smoker allegedly does not know that 11-carboxy-THC could last in his or her body for weeks," the court said. "It is also irrelevant that a person might not be able to drive long after any possible impairment from ingesting marijuana has worn off."
The four judges in the majority bent over backward to reach this bizarre conclusion. They cited several definitions of derivative that could be read to include 11-carboxy-THC, most of which also would render ubiquitous chemicals such as carbon dioxide "controlled substances," meaning that no one would be allowed to drive. They chose the one definition of derivative that avoided this absurd result while still allowing 11-carboxy-THC to be counted as a disqualifying blood contaminant.
The three dissenters noted that such a conclusion is contrary to the law's intent (to protect the public from impaired drivers) and inconsistent with state and federal criteria for Schedule I substances (which are supposed to be psychoactive chemicals or precursors to them). They also argued that the ruling results in an unconstitutionally vague law that invites arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.
Given variations in metabolism and laboratory standards, marijuana smokers can never be sure whether they're legally permitted to drive in Michigan. The statute as interpreted by the Michigan Supreme Court therefore does not give people enough information to know when they are violating it--a basic requirement of due process and the rule of law.
Treating unimpaired drivers as if they were intoxicated is fundamentally unfair, and treating a drug metabolite with no pharmacological action like the drug itself makes no sense if the goal is preventing accidents. But the drug warriors who see Michigan as a model for the nation have other goals in mind.
Proponents (PDF link) of "zero tolerance" laws, such as drug testing consultant J. Michael Walsh and former federal drug czar Robert DuPont, see them as a way of deterring drug use and forcing users into "treatment." If the point is to make the penalties for smoking marijuana more severe, let's have a debate about that, instead of pretending the issue is traffic safety.
© Copyright 2006 by Creators Syndicate Inc.
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason. His weekly column is distributed by Creators Syndicate. If you'd like to see it in your local newspaper, please e-mail or call the editorial page editor today.
Does the fact that one has smoked marijuana, in fact, make his ability to behave rationally questionable?
No.
The very fact that someone smokes a joint to distance him from reality knowing that his act could land him in trouble makes his act irrational. Should irrationl people be allowed to drive?
Irrational people drive every day.
You nearly have to be irrational to strap yourself into a 2-ton contraption and move at speeds that would vaporize a boiled egg, among other contraptions weighing from 250 to 180,000 pounds, risking arrest and confiscation of your net worth every second.
Are you saying only people who act rational 100% of the time should be allowed to drive?
Good luck with a test for that.
I haven't kept up with the thread, but I thought the question was impairment. If it's not a question of actual impairment, what about the metabolites of prescription drugs and their potential adverse effects?
I never said anything like that? Did you get your posting techiniques from 101 Ways to Distort"?
No. The issue is that ingesting marijuana is illegal. Nothing about impairment.
Maybe that is what makes some smoke?
What is your solution, mandatory urinalysis without cause?
Absolutely not.
It's what makes some want to regulate others' behavior, when it would be simpler to just avoid unpleasant situations and company.
You described those who do a particular irrational thing - smoke a joint-- to be irrational people. I made the conclusion that you believe anyone who does an irrational thing once is considered irrational. I guess I was wrong.
Is there a certain class of irrational actions that by performing once cause a person to be considered irrational, or is it just smoking that joint? Of course, there are bigtime irrational events that will get you thrown in jail because of the damage they cause and we can rightly call the doers irrational, (like the preacher's wife who shot her husband over money problems) but is the act of smoking a joint the equivalent? Please clarify.
And you consider risking your future and your families future for a trip to la la land a rational action?
How is smoking a joint risking you or your families' future?
I stand to reason. Not all decisions to smoke are based on reason, some are just done in ignorance.
I haven't kept up with the thread, but I thought the question was impairment.
No. The issue is that ingesting marijuana is illegal. Nothing about impairment.
The issue is; can ingesting marijuana lead to an 'impairment' days later, justifying a 'Driving While Impaired' charge?
But then, some here are to impaired to argue the point rationally.
IN MICE....or didn't you actually read what was in your link?
Sheesh...
The Interstate Commerce Clause should be subordinate to the ammendments, right?
If you go back to the law, the legislative intent was not concerned with impairment.
MCL 257.625(8) does not require intoxication, impairment, or knowledge that one might be intoxicated; it simply requires that the person have “any amount” of a schedule 1 controlled substance in his or her body when operating a motor vehicle.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.