home

Ohio Senate Passes Bad 'Drugged Driving' Bill

By Jeralyn, Section Legislation
Posted on Thu Feb 17, 2005 at 03:12:11 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

This is ominous. The The Ohio Senate voted 30-1 yesterday to approve legislation (SB 8) criminally sanctioning any person who operates a motor vehicle if trace levels of marijuana or non-psychoactive marijuana metabolites (compounds produced from the chemical changes of a drug in the body) are present in their blood or urine.

Why is it bad and ominous? Because traces of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana stays in your system for up to a month. So the law will apply to and punish sober drivers who may have smoked weeks or days ago. According to NORML's Paul Armentano (received by e-mail, no link yet):

This legislation seeks to define sober drivers as if they were intoxicated," he said. "Someone who smokes marijuana is impaired as a driver at most for a few hours, certainly not for days or weeks. To treat all marijuana smokers as if they are impaired, even when the drug's effects have long worn off, is illogical and unfair."

Before you breathe a sigh of relief because you don't live in Ohio, consider this:

Similar laws classifying motorists who test positive for trace amount of illicit drugs or drug metabolites in their bodily fluids as criminally impaired have been enacted in twelve US states: Arizona, Georgia, Illinois,Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wisconsin.

So, where can you move to and be safe from these kinds of law? Of all places, Germany:

In January, a German law defining motorists with any detectable level of drugs or marijuana (THC) in their blood as per se impaired was struck down by the German Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

More info on the law is available here. For driving and marijuana, go here.

< Defense Lawyers in the News | More Compassionate Conservatives for Children >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Ohio Senate Passes Bad 'Drugged Driving' Bill | 31 comments (31 topical)
    Re: Ohio Senate Passes Bad 'Drugged Driving' Bill (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 17, 2005 at 03:38:11 PM EST
    The boys in government like many people in prison's, and when that person is put in prison say good by to social benefits, if you don't understand that do the work and find out what i mean, our state governments are the snipers on the hill, third world here we come.

    Re: Ohio Senate Passes Bad 'Drugged Driving' Bill (none / 0) (#2)
    by roy on Thu Feb 17, 2005 at 03:44:04 PM EST
    It's just a way for them to say how tough on crime they are. They probably already have a campaign speech written for a few years later, talking about how to solve the prison over-crowding problem they create. (this is my token "I don't always disagree with TL" post)

    Re: Ohio Senate Passes Bad 'Drugged Driving' Bill (none / 0) (#3)
    by Adept Havelock on Thu Feb 17, 2005 at 03:53:23 PM EST
    What I found interesting was the thresholds: Heroin: 2,000 nanograms of heroin per milliliter in urine, or 50 nanograms per milliliter in blood. Cocaine: 150 nanograms of cocaine per milliliter in urine, or 50 nanograms per milliliter in blood Marijuana: 10 nanograms of marijuana per milliliter in the person's urine, or two nanograms per milliliter in blood. A nanogram is one-billionth of a gram and a milliliter is a unit of volume equal to one-thousandth of a liter. Interesting. The less damaging the substance, the lower the threshold. I wonder if someone could get to the 10ng threshold simply by being exposed to secondary smoke at a concert or some such. The "Drug" Warriors appear to have their priorities backward, at least to me.

    Re: Ohio Senate Passes Bad 'Drugged Driving' Bill (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Feb 17, 2005 at 04:21:47 PM EST
    Before you Lefties freak out, ask yourself this: How will 'they' get your urine or blood? Probably only if you are in a serious accident, or if you are visibly impaired. So don't worry Kdog, no ones going to see your green stream.