Alan C. Posted March 13, 2013 Posted March 13, 2013 Drivers aren't high but still busted for DUI Drivers from Arizona and at least nine other states, including Utah, Iowa, Indiana, Delaware and Rhode Island, are going to jail, paying big fines and losing their licenses after having gotten driving-under-the-influence citations when blood tests prove they were not high. "It makes no sense," says attorney Michael Alarid III, who is representing a man charged in Arizona. "But this is how prosecutors and the courts are interpreting the law. And the legislature doesn't appear to want to change it. So we're hoping we can get the issue before the state Supreme Court." How could a person who is not high get busted for DUI? It happens when science meets politics. Blood tests can detect two important chemical compounds that come from marijuana. One of them, THC, makes a person high and lasts for hours. The other inactive chemical, created as your body neutralizes THC, can linger in a person's system for up to a month. In Arizona, state law says if you have either of these compounds in your blood, you are guilty of a DUI. "As things stand," Alarid says, "a person from Arizona could go on a snowboarding trip to Colorado or Washington state, where marijuana is legal for recreational use, and then a month later he could be driving in Arizona, get stopped and be convicted of DUI." Not long ago, the state Court of Appeals upheld Arizona's law, which says if any "metabolite" of a drug like marijuana is found in a person's blood he is guilty of DUI.
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