How legal drug use can lead to a DUI?

For the most part, most DUI arrests are of suspects intoxicated by alcohol or illegal drugs. However, it is not rare for someone on legal, prescription drugs to be arrested and convicted of DUI. In the opinion of Memphis, TN DUI lawyers, legal drug use can be illegal while driving and end up getting you in a world of trouble in certain cases.

If you are someone who is facing DUI charges and need to know how to defend yourself and beat your case then it is important to seek help from a legal representative as soon as possible. A DUI conviction can essentially kill your career and also adversely affect other aspects of your personal and social life too.

Your head may be spinning. Your life could be spiraling out of control but hold up, there is a Memphis DUI lawyer that can make your life much easier and offer you some direction. How do you find one? Go right here: http://dui-lawyers.usattorneys.com/tennessee. This website is not spinning! This website is right side up 24/7 and is helping many people right now as these words are being typed. You are not the only one who has had prescription drug driving problems. The police may be correct on some level but this should not be the end of your life. You are not a villain. Find legal help and make this somewhat right. 

A story we here all too often – someone who simply did not know any better popped some medication that causes drowsiness or has drowsiness listed as one of the side effects causes an accident. He then says to the responding law enforcement officer that the medication may have caused his judgment to become impaired.

Not only will the person be placed under arrest for DUI but they have now also testified to driving under the influence and will almost surely get convicted too. It is unfortunate, but this is something that happens in the real world and is also dangerous and Western Tennessee DUI lawyers have seen cases like this more than once. 

Prescription pills can be your legal detriment

As per Memphis, TN DUI lawyers, the two typical aspects of a DUI case are the suspect was driving or operating a motor vehicle (one that is steered and controlled by the operator) and was (at the same) under the influence of a substance that causes some sort of impairment or alcohol. When someone is driving on legal medication that causes drowsiness then both of these conditions are satisfied and hence a DUI conviction is almost inevitable.       

In fact, some states there are laws which list some of the narcotic drugs that fall under this category just to make the law more transparent and less open to interpretation. Some state laws also make a special mention of legal drug use and driving and additionally it also remarks that both legal and illegal drugs can be addictive. This of course, is true.

Tennessee law states that the legal use of an intoxicant such as marijuana and other drugs by a driver cannot be a defense to a DUI charge, confirm Western Tennessee DUI attorneys.

No threshold on drug use\medication and driving

However, unlike with alcohol, it is not easy to determine whether or not a driver is under the influence of a prescription drug and it is even more challenging to determine to what level they are intoxicated. So for alcohol there is certain threshold and anyone driving whilst above that limit is technically committing a crime.

In most states this limit is defined as 0.08% for adult, non-commercial driver and this can be quickly assessed by a breathalyzer or field sobriety tests. However, since there isn’t yet a method devised to judge how intoxicated someone is on drugs (be it legal drugs or illegal drugs) there is no threshold at all. Any amount of drugs in your system can lead to a DUI say Memphis DUI lawyers who are not too pleased with this type of ambiguity.

It looks someone needs to invent a device that can detect how drugs someone has in their system. There certainly seems to be a market for a device such as this but this is another topic.