In this video, we’re going to talk about some legal gray areas that can come up when you’re not physically impaired by marijuana. We’ll be discussing DUI charges when you’re not physically impaired.
If you’re in Wyoming and you’re wondering what you should do if you’re caught with marijuana, then this video is for you. We’ll discuss the legal gray areas that bailable offenses and marijuana-related DUI charges can fall under, and provide you with some advice on how to stay safe while protecting your rights.
Learn about your legal rights in Wyoming and South Dakota and what you can do as a citizen to protect your legal rights.
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Transcript
Speaker 1
00;00;00;04 – 00;00;01;01
Hi, everyone. Did you know you can get a DUI even if you don’t feel high?
This is Christina Williams with Just Criminal Law.
Speaker 2
00;00;09;07 – 00;00;10;12
And this is David Martin,legal storytelling specialist.
Okay, That must have something to do with something I was reading before
that said that Colorado, for instance, has a law that says with a certain level,I can’t remember what it was,
a certain level of THC in your system, you will be presumed to be impaired.
Is that what you’re talking about?
Speaker 1
00;00;29;18 – 00;00;30;03
Yes. So Colorado’s made it illegal to have five nanograms per milliliter of THC
in your blood and operate a vehicle.
Speaker 2
00;00;42;20 – 00;00;43;06
Okay. So this can, if I remember right, from what I read, that
this doesn’t work the same as alcohol. There’s some kind of delay
in what it registers in your blood versus what it feels like in your head.
Is that right?
Speaker 1
00;00;56;28 – 00;00;58;21
Well, absolutely. And and it even goes person by person.
THC will affect me, say, differently than it will affect you.
And so there’s really not the science to back this presumptive amount
of THC that you can have in your blood and and say you’re per say impaired
and you shouldn’t be driving. It just doesn’t correlate the same as it does with alcohol.
Speaker 2
00;01;27;18 – 00;01;28;00
Okay. So let’s throw out a an example like what could maybe be
a typical sort of summer story and you can tell me how this would play out.
Speaker 2
00;01;36;28 – 00;01;39;24
So let’s say a person is out hiking with their friends, right?
And they’re smoking a little pot. They want to feel, you know, happy
and they’re going along and they do that just a little bit.
They sort of get high and then there’s some time passes.
They go back home, they decide to grill some burgers, say, and they have a couple of beers
while they’re doing that. And then someone realizes we forgot the ketchup.
00;02;01;28 – 00;02;04;00
So this person goes out in the car and drives away to the grocery store.
Now, hours after smoking pot, but just an hour or so after drinking some light beer
and gets pulled over and then down to the station for the DUI test.
And now what could possibly happen to that person?
Speaker 1
00;02;23;24 – 00;02;24;09
Right. So say, you know, we have a couple beers. A couple three beers,
And your blood alcohol level is .05.06. But you have that active
metabolite of THC in your blood as well.
Now you can feel completely normal. That is, the the fact of the THC or smoking
the marijuana has faded and you know, you’re not feeling high anymore.
But then you know, when it boils down to it, you still have the THC in your blood.
And so you can find yourself in a predicament where, you know, you’ve got THC in your blood,
you’ve got alcohol in your blood.
So the state, you know, has a pretty, at face value anyway, a pretty strong case of, you know,
you must be too intoxicated to be operating a motor vehicle.
Speaker 2
00;03;25;19 – 00;03;26;25
Yeah. So it’s going to look like that because no one’s going to maybe push back on it.
But what you’re saying is that you felt high a couple of hours ago when you were hiking
and you probably shouldn’t have driven a car then, but you weren’t. You were hiking.
And now hours later, when you’re driving, you’re totally not impaired.
You don’t feel impaired. But the blood test says that you have it in your system.
And it’s easy to confuse this and think, well, if you have it in your system, you’re impaired.
And that’s the kind of legal questiont hat you help people get out of. Is that right?
Speaker 1
00;04;02;20 – 00;04;03;08
Right. And so, you know, you really have to know the science of
how does the body metabolize THC and what does that that level actually mean.
And, you know, there’s very few legal controlled substances
that have been studied close enough to say, you know, this is
this is the average therapeutic dose that a person should take, let alone THC.
THC just hasn’t been studied enough. And it really varies from person to person
as to how it’s going to affect their mental abilities or their cognitive,
you know, what’s going on inside of their brain.
00;04;48;11 – 00;04;49;27
And, you know, when the state gets a blood test,
they have no idea what level of THC is in your brain,
which is, you know, what will really affect whether or not you are impaired.
Speaker 2
00;05;02;10 – 00;05;02;24
All right. So if someone finds that they have gotten themselves
into this particular situation, they should give you a call.
Is that right?
Speaker 1
00;05;10;15 – 00;05;10;28
Right. We’ll include a link in the description where they can call, text
or chat with a member of my team, any time, day or night.
00;05;17;25 – 00;05;19;03
Here at Just Criminal Law, we know you only get one shot at justice.
So make yours count.
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