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Volume XXXXI
‘City of Roses’
Number 49
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• Happy
New
Year!
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www.portlandobserver.coni
Wednesday • Januaiy 2, 2013
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Cheech and Chong in the 1978 cult classic ‘Up in Smoke. ’ The comedy duo was known for playing fun with the drug culture, but driving under the influence of cannabis
is serious stuff when it comes to driving laws and safety.
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserver
by
With legalization of marijuana
underway in Washington, the state
has adopted a new legal standard
for driving under the drug’s influ
ence, but police say the protocol for
checking impaired drivers goes un
changed. If you’re visibly high, you
will be charged with a DUI.
Trooper W illiam Finn, spokes
man for the W ashington State P a
trol, said w hether its m arijuana,
other drugs or alcohol, their main
focus is “getting im paired drivers
off the road.”
As of last month, 21-and-over
W ashingtonians are allowed to
possess an ounce or less of mari
juana. But when it comes to driving,
there’s a new technical-threshold of
five nanograms of marijuana’s psy
choactive component or THC, per
milliliter of blood, as W ashington’s
limit for driving under the influence
of cannabis.
Driving High
Pot legalization doesn’t apply to roads
If a police officer in W ashing
ton suspects a driver is impaired
when they pull them over, fhey
can arrest and charge that person
with a DUI, regardless of any
blood being drawn.
Later, police can offer a blood
test and the results can be used in
court. But even if the person has
less than five nanograms per millili
ter of THC in their blood, the court
can move forward with the prosecu
tion, Finn said.
Some critics argue that the new
THC threshold is unconstitutional
because marijuana users have no
way of knowing when they’re over
the limit. Advocates for marijuana
legalization say that for the heavi
est users of the drug, active THC
levels may never drop below five
nanograms, even when they’re not
impaired.
But others, including police in
Oregon and Washington, maintain
that driving under the influence of
marijuana remains as illegal as it was
before the new law.
“Nothing has changed in regards
to driving impaired,” said Joshua
Ladd, a certified Drug Recognition
Expert for the Portland Police
Bureau’s traffic division.
In both states, a DUII for alcohol
is determined when a driver’s Blood
Alcohol Content (BAC) is .08 or
more, but the threshold for mari
juana is less clear. The Portland
Police Bureau says the threshold
for a driver intoxicated on drugs is
“impaired to a perceptible degree”.
If an officer can’t see it or smell it,
but has probable cause that a per
son is driving impaired, they will ask
that person to step out of the car and
perform the standard field sobriety
test. A few distinguishing factors
can help police determine if a person
is high on marijuana, said Ladd.
Police check the eyes first: di
lated pupils, bloodshot eyes, de
layed and slow responses, loss of
social boundaries (don’t laugh) and
body and eyelid tremors are a few
noticeable clues, he said.
Visine may help red eyes, said
Ladd, but it does not change the size
of the pupil, which is often dilated if
a person is high. Police may also
check the bottom, inner eyelids for
a specific type of reddened look,
another indicator of marijuana use.
Police will then ask the person
to walk a straight line and do a
one-legged stand. Depending on
whether the person passes or fails
the sobriety test and their initial
probable cause, police can make
an arrest. Ladd says, asking the
person to take a breath test is next
in protocol.
The “intoxilyzer” is the first step
of the 12-step Drug Recognition
Evaluator program, an international
program that only a select few of
continued
on page 2