Marijuana (Pot) and DUI Drugs in Arizona

Posted on November 21, 2010 in DUI Drugs

The world’s view of marijuana, or pot, is changing. We see this with an ever-growing amount of states passing medical marijuana laws, and have also seen it with the 40% of California residents that voted to legalize pot outright in California. Despite these facts, Arizona’s laws on the subject haven’t changed. Arizona has incredibly strictDUI Drugs laws on its books, under which guilt is determined by the mere presence of a drug or its metabolite in your system. That means that if you smoked one marijuana cigarette or joint three or four weeks ago, then every time you drove during that time (until your urine was absolutely free of the marijuana metabolites), you were driving under theinfluence of drugs (also known as DUI Drugs).

Yes, thatmeans that three days after you smoked pot, and were out getting groceries, you were DUI. This is also true when, a week later, you drove the kids to the movies. Under that circumstance you would once again be DUI; and if anyone in the car was under 15 years old you would have committed a felony DUI.

This is important – you don’t have to be high to be convicted.

That being said, the biggest mistake that people make during a DUI investigation is admitting that they smoke marijuana or pot at all. That admission gives the officers probable cause to arrest the person, and because that person smoked weeks ago, the marijuana metabolite is present. That person is now charged with DUI Drugs.

Most readers of this blog unfortunately don’t find out how broad Arizona’s DUI Drugs law is until after they have been arrested for DUI and are seeking out information. To learn more about the consequences of a DUI Drugs conviction, visit “First Offense DUI– How Bad Can That Be? (Part 3 of 5)”.