Marijuana DUI
Proposed Marijuana DUI Law in Colorado Fails
One of the major hurdles in the marijuana reform movement is how to enforce driving laws. With alcohol, there is a clear system that most people understand with tests that are not likely to turn up false positives. Testing drivers for recent marijuana use, however, has proved to be much more difficult.
Recently marijuana.net ran a story about a proposed law in Colorado that would set a limit as to how much THC could legally be permitted in a drivers system. Initially the bill to regulate marijuana DUI was passed by Colorado lawmakers by one vote, 18-17, two weeks ago. However, politics is often unpredictable and one of the bills major proponents, Nancy Spence was unable to make it to Tuesday’s vote. She was out of state attending a grandchild’s birthday party. Ms. Spence was urged to return quickly by her constituents but she expected the vote to take place a day later. Everyone voted identically as they did two weeks prior, except for Nancy Spence’s absent vote which killed the legislation and resulted in a 17-17 tie.
Critics and opponents have long been seeking a system to test if marijuana patients are suitable to take the wheel. Nationally, it would probably result in even more support (though over 70% of Americans already support medical marijuana) and maybe even by the government if safety measures were taken to ensure driver safety. However, the proposed law in Colorado seemed to be set entirely too low. It would appear that patients would face penalties who were not under the influence of marijuana. The 5 nanogram limit, as stated by Colorado lawmaker Pat Steadman may not work because “Some of these people wake up in the morning and roll out of bed at 5 nanograms.” In response to the vote yesterday, he mentioned that he thought the bill would do nothing to make the roads safer.
While the future of the industry may be very much intertwined with a standard system for analyzing marijuana DUI, we are pleased to see that vulnerable and innocent patients will not be arrested even when they are not impaired to operate a motor vehicle. This law will likely come up again as it has failed 3x already. Hopefully a more commonsense approach is utilized for what appears to be an inevitable law.