Impaired driving charges can come from a host of situations. One of these is when a person takes legal drugs. These can include ones for sale at the local big box store or those that are prescribed by a doctor. The only thing that matters in these cases is that the drug impairs the driver’s ability to drive the vehicle.
The possibility of a drunk driving charge for taking legal drugs is something that you need to think about when you are reaching to take a medication. You should check the side effects of the medication to see if drowsiness or any other form of impairment is possible. If it is, you need to see how the medication impacts you before you get behind the wheel.
The signs of impaired driving for a driver who is under the influence of drugs are similar to those of a driver who is impaired by alcohol. The one thing that is different is that the breath test isn’t going to work for drivers who are impaired by medications. Instead, police officers usually have to rely on other means to prove the impairment.
These officers can still rely on standardized field sobriety tests to gauge impairment. In some cases, they might be able to do blood tests. These blood tests are often difficult to use because the residual evidence of drugs can remain long after the impairment abates.
There are many different defense strategies that might apply to these cases. Think carefully about the direction you want your defense to move in and then make a plan to get started.
Source: FindLaw, “You Can Get a DUI on Legal Drugs,” accessed Feb. 09, 2018
