Marijuana DUI Laws in Legal States
Back to DiariesWe’ve all seen them, either on TV or while we were driving past a set of flashing red and blue lights.
Drunk drivers.
Sometimes they’re even going the wrong way on the Interstate. The officer makes whoever is behind the wheel get out of the vehicle, follow a flashlight with their eyes, walk a straight line, stand on one foot, say the alphabet—backwards—and on it goes. Authorities even make the inebriated suspect breathe into a machine that tests the person’s BAC.
While laws vary from state to state, here in Wisconsin you are considered legally drunk if you have a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 or higher. If you do, then you get carried away to jail.
The impairment trends involving alcohol are rather predictable, to say the least.
But what about marijuana? The use of marijuana is widely believed to affect everyone differently. Even if impairment was the same, measuring how impaired someone is can’t be nearly as simple as it is with alcohol.
Perspective: Marijuana DUIs
Marijuana is a fat-soluble, meaning, it’s stored in our fat. When a person is stopped for a marijuana DUI, they are not allowed to have more than 5 nanograms of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) per liter of their blood. A daily marijuana user (let’s say for medicinal reasons in legal states) can have up to 13.5 nanograms of THC in each liter of their blood while they’re completely sober. Having the test come back as saying they are too high to drive—when they are actually sober—does not accurately reflect the situation.
Being over the legal limit of marijuana is said to double the likelihood of someone being in a car accident. Let’s measure that against other detrimental driving activities. Texting while driving is also supposed to double the chances of a person being in a car accident. Drinking and driving above the legal limit, however, increases the likelihood of someone being in a car accident by eleven fold.
What are the penalties for these offenses?
The penalties for DUI of any drug sort (marijuana or other) are the same as the penalties for alcohol, regardless of the drastically different likelihood the driver will get in an accident. The penalty for texting and driving—despite the same risk level of marijuana—is only $50 for the first fine and $100 for the second.
At the end of the day, Dirt Dynasty does not condone driving while high under the influence of marijuana or any other drug. There’s no arguing that you and everybody else on the road will be much safer adhering to the law. And just think, then you won’t have to worry about what the penalties are to the laws you just looked up!
If you have marijuana DUI information to share, contact Dirt Dynasty to suggest an addition.
