Marijuana DUI California

Marijuana DUI Prosecution Techniques

If you were arrested for driving under the influence of marijuana in Ventura, the prosecution may use several types of evidence against you in court. In order to convict you, prosecutors must show that you were impaired by marijuana and that your level of impairment kept you from driving safely.

Although California law does not require law enforcement to convict you of driving under the influence of any specific drug, most prosecution strategies attempt to show that the driver used a specific substance to make their cases appear credible.

During a marijuana DUI case, the prosecutor will probably use the following evidence to pursue a conviction:

• Chemical Testing – The prosecutor will probably show a chemical test, such as a blood or urine test, that shows THC in your system. However, these tests cannot show when the substance entered your bloodstream, making them unreliable during a DUI case.
• Field Sobriety Testing – Field sobriety tests are used to measure an individual’s level of impairment through a serious of simple tasks. For example, law enforcement may test your ability to balance. If you fail sobriety testing, the prosecutor may hold this against you in court as evidence of marijuana impairment.
• Physical Appearance – Police officers often cite your physical appearance as probable cause for a DUI investigation or arrest. If you demonstrated signs of marijuana use, prosecutors may claim that you drove impaired. This type of evidence is not always reliable since symptoms of marijuana use can be accounted for by other factors, such as exhaustion.
• Driving Patterns – During a DUI investigation, police offices may attribute driving patterns (speed, weaving through traffic, unnecessary lane changes, etc.) to marijuana impairment. However, most of these patterns can be caused by tiredness, distraction, and other variables.

During a marijuana-related DUI trial, the arresting officer and a Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) will testify about this evidence in court.

Police Investigation During a Marijuana DUI Case

Generally speaking, the arresting officer in a DUI case will testify that he/she believes that you drove under the influence of marijuana because of your physical appearance, driving patterns, and inability to pass field sobriety testing. Additionally, the officer might say that breath testing showed that your impairment was not associated with alcohol. For example, an officer may suspect that you drove under the influence of alcohol, conduct a breath test, and discover that your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was only .01%. At this point, the officer might assume that your impairment was caused by drug use. Once law enforcement suspects that the driver is under the influence of marijuana or another drug, he/she will call a DRE to continue the investigation.

Drug Recognition Evaluators

A DRE officer is trained to identify drug impairment. Because law enforcement has not developed an effective test to measure actual levels of impairment, they use DREs to collect evidence of substance impairment that is not connected with alcohol. During the investigation, the officer will try to determine:

• If the driver is under the influence of drugs
• Which drugs affected the suspect’s ability to operate a car

If a DRE suspects that you are under the influence of marijuana, he/she will look for these symptoms: short-term memory loss, dry mouth, uninhibited behavior, body tremors, eyelid tremors, the smell of marijuana, high blood pressure, elevated heart rate, and dilated pupils. Although these symptoms can indicate marijuana use, they are not exclusively connected with drug impairment.