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Driving Under the Influence of Prescription Drugs in California Is a Crime: You Can Go to Jail

Posted by Christopher Martens | Nov 24, 2014 | 0 Comments

When you think about the concept of "driving under the influence," you might conjure up images of someone pounding down one too many beers at a bar and hopping behind the wheel. Or you might imagine someone smoking a lot of marijuana or doing stimulants, like methamphetamine, and then driving the wrong way on the freeway.

But even over the counter or prescription drugs can degrade your judgment and reaction time, making you a dangerous driver. You can be charged with a drug DUI for driving while under the influence of drugs that your doctors prescribed to you, including sedatives, opioids and narcotics for pain. Yes: this means you can GO TO JAIL even if you didn't hurt anybody, and you had a doctor's prescription for the drugs you took.

During alcohol DUI stops, police use a variety of tests, including breath tests and blood tests, to determine whether someone has been over the limit. Testing for drug DUI gets bit more complicated. Police will often need to analyze your blood or urine samples for a while to determine the presence (or absence) of various compounds.

Such tests may seem "scientific," but you may be to able to challenge them on a number of grounds. For instance:

  • Maybe the police did not explain your rights;
  • Maybe the testing facility conducted inaccurate tests or even switched your test with someone else's test (that happens!);
  • Maybe there is ambiguity about exactly how much of a particular substance you had in your system that you can exploit, legally, to advance your defense;
  • Maybe you can challenge the stop on other grounds. For instance, maybe the police did not have probable cause to pull you over in the first place.

Don't go into this fight blind and unprepared or underprepared. Call attorney Christopher Marten immediately, so that he and his team can fight aggressively to defend you, and keep you OUT OF JAIL and PROTECT YOUR LICENSE.

About the Author

Christopher Martens

Bio Visalia and Bakersfield criminal defense attorney who has dedicated his life to helping those who have been accused of crimes or injured due to the negligence of others.

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