DUI of Drugs

Under Vehicle Code 23152(f), you can face serious criminal charges in California for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated or under the influence of marijuana, prescription medicine, or illegal narcotics.

In contrast to the alcohol cases, where a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% is the threshold for arrest, drug-related investigations have a lot more room for subjective interpretation by police officers. Even if you were taking a prescription drug or you no longer felt the effects of a substance, you could still be facing jail time and license suspension. A DUID conviction has other long-term implications that can impact your professional license, insurance premiums, and freedom.

When facing drugged driving charges in Southern California, you should have a lawyer who can challenge the prosecution’s case. At Singh Law, we offer a robust, proactive defense against any scientific assertions and procedural flaws by the prosecution. Call us today for a free consultation and obtain the legal representation you deserve.

What Qualifies as DUID Under California Vehicle Code 23152(f)?

California’s impaired driving laws are much more stringent than just drinking and driving. Vehicle Code 23152(f) says that driving while you are under the influence of drugs means that your physical or mental function is impaired in such a way that you are not able to drive as carefully as a sober person.

The Broad Legal Definition of a Drug

The law does not care about the nature of the substances in your case. If you used an illegal drug, a recreational drug (even one legally purchased), or an over-the-counter allergy drug, the most important legal issue is the extent to which you are impaired.

The definition of a “drug” in this jurisdiction is quite expansive and includes anything other than alcohol that may impact your brain, muscles, or nervous system. This does not exclude the possibility of prosecution if the substance in your body is a lifesaving drug prescribed by your primary care provider. Also, the prosecution does not have to show that you were “high” or “stoned” but just has to prove that you cannot operate your car safely because of the substance.

The Challenges of Proving Impairment Without a Per Se Limit

With no “per se” limit for drugs, you have a special challenge in your defense. A DUI for drugs is not necessarily based on a specific numerical value but rather on the circumstances as a whole.

The prosecution will be based on:

• Your driving history
• Your physical appearance when you were stopped
• Your results on the clinical tests

These charges are levied under a broad body of law that allows for a formal arrest even for minimal amounts of a substance and for a traffic violation.

Driving While Addicted Under Vehicle Code 23152(c)

In addition, the California Vehicle Code 23152(c) prohibits driving when you are addicted to any drug, even if you are not affected by the drug at the time of driving.

An exception is made for those who are enrolled in an approved narcotic treatment program, but it is still a means for prosecutors to punish people they suspect of chronic substance use. It is important to understand that addiction is a risk to road safety, like a high BAC.

Combined Influence and Synergistic Effects Under VC 23152(g)

In addition, California Vehicle Code 23152(g) refers to the effects of both drugs and alcohol. You may be in a situation where your BAC is well under the legal limit of 0.08%. However, you are still arrested because a prescription sedative or marijuana was present that supposedly enhanced the effect of the alcohol.

This additive effect is the foundation for many of the “combination” DUI charges. The way these substances interact and the way the prosecution tries to connect them to your driving needs to be taken into consideration when developing your legal strategy. This synergistic effect is sometimes presented to a jury as a “force multiplier” of impairment, meaning that the total effect of intoxication is claimed to exceed the sum of its parts.

You have to get ready for a trial in which experts will come out and say that even one glass of wine, with a therapeutic dose of an anti-anxiety drug, makes you a public menace.

The Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Role and the 12-Step Evaluation

If a standard patrol officer suspects that your impairment stems from something other than alcohol, they will call for a specialized investigation by a Drug Recognition Expert (DRE). A DRE has undergone extensive training to determine the kind of substance that is supposedly affecting your central nervous system (CNS).

There is a twelve-step examination process you must go through, and the prosecution uses this process to “scientifically” prove your guilt. The DRE recognizes certain clinical signs in seven drug classes, including stimulants, hallucinogens, and more. These professionals also categorize your claimed impairment into one of the following “silos”:

1. CNS Depressants
2. CNS Stimulants
3. Hallucinogens
4. Dissociative anesthetics
5. Narcotic analgesics
6. Inhalants
7. Cannabis

The officer’s job is to look for physical indicators, such as pulse rate or pupil size, that correspond to the known characteristics of these drug classes. Even if the adrenaline rush of a stressful police encounter caused your symptoms, your heart rate is up, and your pupils are dilated, the DRE will testify that this is consistent with stimulant use.

Below is the 12-step drug evaluation process:

1. Step 1: Breath Alcohol Test — This is the first test that the DRE will take to see if your impairment is due to alcohol alone or if your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) is inconsistent with your observed impairment.
2. Step 2: Interview of the Arresting Officer — The DRE speaks with the officer who made the traffic stop to find out what your driving habits were, what you said to him at the time of the traffic stop, and if any drugs were found in your vehicle.
3. Step 3: Preliminary Examination and First Pulse — The expert conducts a basic health check to rule out injury or illness, checks any medication you are taking, and records your first pulse rate.
4. Step 4: Eye Examinations — You will have tests to determine if your eyes jerk and/or do not cross properly, including:
   1. Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN)
   2. Vertical Gaze Nystagmus (VGN)
   3. Lack of Convergence (LOC)
5. Step 5: Divided Attention Psychophysical Tests—These tests assess your coordination. You will be asked to perform four physical tests:
   1. Romberg Balance
   2. Walk and Turn
   3. One-Leg Stand
   4. Finger to Nose
6. Step 6: Vital Signs and Second Pulse — The evaluator checks your blood pressure, body temperature, and second pulse rate to detect physiologic changes associated with certain drug groups.
7. Step 7: Dark Room Examinations—The officer will use a pupillometer to measure the size of your pupils under three lighting conditions:
   1. Room light
   2. Near-total darkness
   3. Direct light
8. Step 8: Muscle Tone Exam—The DRE assesses muscle tone in the arms and legs for any unusual rigidity or flaccidity, as some drugs, such as PCP or CNS depressants, can significantly affect muscle tone.
9. Step 9: Inspect for Injection Sites and Third Pulse—The expert looks for recent injection marks, or “track marks,” on your arms, neck, and other parts of your body and takes the third and final pulse reading.
10. Step 10: Subject’s Statements and Other Observations—You are read your Miranda rights and questioned about your drug use, and the officer keeps watching you and your appearance.
11. Step 11: Analysis and Opinion of the Evaluator — After reviewing all the clinical and psychophysical evidence collected, the DRE makes a formal opinion on whether you are impaired and which drug category caused your impairment.
12. Step 12: Toxicological Examination—This is the final step, in which a biological sample (typically blood) is collected from the suspect and sent to a lab to verify or refute the DRE’s results.

Why Blood Tests Don’t Prove Impairment

In the vast majority of drug-related DUI cases in California, the prosecution’s case rests on the toxicology report. Being “under the influence” of a drug does not mean that you were actually “under the influence” while you were driving. The metabolism of drugs is very different from the predictable burn-off rate of alcohol.

Drug metabolites often remain in your bloodstream long after the actual psychoactive effects of a substance have completely dissipated. For example, the active component in marijuana, known as THC, is fat-soluble, which allows it to be detected for several weeks in chronic users despite a lack of current intoxication.

Furthermore, standard blood tests often fail to distinguish between active parent drugs and inactive metabolites that lack impairing properties. This scientific gap is further complicated by the fact that individual tolerance levels vary significantly, meaning a specific concentration that affects one person might have no measurable impact on another.

Additionally, the time that elapses between your initial traffic stop and the actual clinical blood draw can produce results that do not accurately represent your physiological state while you were behind the wheel. You should also be aware that laboratories occasionally yield false-positive results due to cross-reactivity with common over-the-counter medications or dietary supplements. Consequently, it remains difficult for the legal system to establish standardized benchmarks for quantitative analysis to demonstrate that a specific nanogram level definitively equates to impairment.

The detection window for different substances can vary widely depending on an individual’s metabolism, height, and weight. Cocaine can be found in the blood for up to 1-3 days, and amphetamines can remain detectable in the blood for up to 24 hours. But the windows of impairment or “highness” are much shorter than these periods.

The amount of active THC in the bloodstream decreases quickly after first use, sometimes within two hours, but metabolites can be found. Someone who uses marijuana regularly might have a “baseline” level in their system, and even if they haven’t used marijuana in days, they will test positive. The prosecution doesn’t make this distinction and treats a positive test as a sign of impairment.

Penalties for a DUID Conviction in California

The effects of a DUID conviction are serious and long-lasting. DUID is taken as seriously as drunk driving in California, and you could be facing heavy fines, education requirements, and jail time. The court system has a graduated system of penalties, meaning that each time you get a conviction within 10 years, you receive a harsher punishment.

Misdemeanor DUID (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Offenses)

If you do not have a long history of criminal offenses and the case does not involve serious injury, most drug-related DUI charges will be treated as misdemeanors. There are administrative penalties imposed by the Department of Motor Vehicles and criminal penalties imposed by the court.

1. First DUID Offense

• If a person is convicted for the first time, they will usually be given informal probation and a fine of up to about $1,800, based on an assessment.
• A required three-month DUI education program is necessary, but it can be extended to nine months in certain cases.
• In addition to the suspension of your driver’s license (which is at least six months), the court may impose an ignition interlock device even in cases where you are charged only with driving while impaired by drugs.

2. Second DUID Offense

If a second offense occurs within 10 years, the county jail sentence must be 90 days, although some counties may allow house arrest or similar alternatives. The suspension is extended to 2 years, and you are required to participate in an 18-month or 30-month multi-offender course.

3. Third DUID Offense

With the third DUID offense, there is a mandatory minimum sentence of 120 days in jail and a three-year license revocation. This will make it difficult to get insurance coverage or a job in the professional driving industry in the future.

Random drug testing is frequently required as part of probation for second and third offenses.

Another thing you can expect is a huge rise in your auto insurance costs. Numerous insurance companies will deem you a “high-risk” driver and require you to get an SR-22 filing to keep your driving privileges. These higher rates can add up to thousands of dollars to the cost of your original court fines over the years.

Felony DUID (Prior Felonies or Injury Cases)

Most DUID cases remain in the misdemeanor classification, but certain circumstances can elevate the charge to a felony. If the prosecution is successful in getting your case into the felony category, you will be subjected to life-changing penalties.

If you were driving while impaired by drugs and injured or killed someone in an accident, you are charged with Vehicle Code 23153. Also, under California law, the fourth DUI conviction in 10 years is a felony.

Any subsequent DUI, even a misdemeanor stop, will be a felony if you have one prior felony DUI conviction. In California, a felony conviction carries a sentence of 16 months, 2 years, or 3 years of imprisonment.

Another punishment is the revocation of your driver’s license for 4 years, with no opportunity to obtain a restricted license for at least 1 year.

Formal probation is another option that will involve regular reporting to a probation officer and strict travel and employment limitations. The fines for a felony DUID can reach up to $5,000, not to mention restitution you may be liable for to any victims involved in an accident.

You will lose your right to own a gun and may lose your professional license permanently.

If the victim dies, you may be charged with even harsher offenses, including gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and even “Watson Murder.” You may be sentenced to state prison for the rest of your life if the prosecutor can prove that you knew the risks of driving while impaired by drugs, but you were “deliberately indifferent” to the risk of death or bodily injury to others.

Strategic Defenses Against Drug DUI Charges

The defense to a DUID charge is as multifaceted as the charge itself and can challenge both the police officer’s observations and the science underpinning the state’s toxicology report. The evidence in these cases is predominantly subjective, and you will have multiple chances to present reasonable doubt. Your defense attorney needs to thoroughly examine all aspects of the arrest to uncover mistakes and inaccuracies that occurred in the process.

Challenging the DRE Evaluation

Fighting the DRE evaluation is an important strategy because the expert’s report may appear impressive on the surface, but it is often a house of cards. You can argue against their conclusions by pointing out that physical symptoms during the stop were affected by external factors.

Red, watery eyes or a flushed face may be due to tiredness, allergies, or dust. Also, “white coat syndrome” and anxiety can cause an increase in pulse rate and blood pressure during an emotionally charged police interview. Keep in mind that nystagmus is the involuntary shaking of the eyes that is a natural occurrence in a considerable percentage of the general population.

In addition, the darkroom pupil examination may be influenced by poor lighting or passing headlights. The balance tests are frequently affected by unstable floors or shoes or pre-existing leg or back injuries more than by drug use.

The DRE’s “opinion” is frequently determined before evaluation is complete, making it clear that there is an obvious confirmation bias that colors the entire report. Many steps are highly subjective and lack standardized measurements, such as checking muscle tone. By questioning how often the prosecution’s “false positives” occur, you can chip away at the specialist image they have built. It is important to expose flaws where the toxicology report is negative, but the impairment is diagnosed as being chronic.

Title 17 and Lab Inaccuracies

The California Title 17 regulations establish specific guidelines for the collection, storage, and analysis of blood samples. If the government does not comply with these rules, your blood tests may be considered unreliable or even not accepted in court.

The individual who draws the blood needs to be a licensed professional who performs specific medical procedures to prevent contamination. In addition, the quantity of preservative and/or anticoagulant in the vials in which your sample is placed must be the same to avoid fermentation or clotting. If the appropriate “chain of custody” is not maintained, the sample may have been mixed with another sample.

The laboratory should regularly check and calibrate testing equipment to ensure it is accurate to the nanogram levels. When blood samples are not refrigerated properly, they can deteriorate, leading to inaccurate levels of certain chemicals. A technician who is not properly trained can get “false positives” from the chromatograph’s drug identification equipment. Any mistakes in the lab’s internal paperwork can taint the whole toxicology report.

Check if the draw site on your arm was wiped with an alcohol swab. The sample may be contaminated if the nurse/technician used an alcohol swab, and the prosecution is charging for a mixture of drugs and alcohol. Title 17 states that disinfectants must be non-alcohol-based to ensure the absolute scientific integrity of results.

Lack of Probable Cause

You have a right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, including the initial traffic stop and subsequent arrest. If there is no legal justification for the stop, the entire case may be thrown out by a motion to suppress evidence.

California law requires that all detentions be based upon a “reasonable suspicion” that a traffic violation or crime has occurred. A lack of a specific diagnosis, or a vague “hunch” or unexpressed feeling of impairment, is not enough to justify an encounter; if the police stopped you because of how you looked or your neighborhood, the stop is essentially illegal.

Police cannot hold a traffic stop for an extended period of time to await the arrival of a DRE without good reason. Field sobriety tests (FSTs) are optional, and refusal does not equal probable cause. The officer should state specific, objective facts of your impairment. When a judge determines there is insufficient probable cause, the “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine applies, barring evidence gathered after the illegal stop, such as blood tests.

This defense applies to “DUI checkpoints” where suspicion is limited to specific guidelines. Roadblocks are legal so long as they limit infringement of liberty.

An arrest can be challenged if the department:

• Did not publicize the checkpoint
• Did not have a neutral formula,
• Detained you for an unreasonable period of time

Your defense will be to review the “standing orders” to ensure the administrative duties were fulfilled. The detention loses its legal character if police violate these rules and the drug evidence is tainted, and often the charges of DUID will be dismissed.

Find a Criminal Defense Lawyer Near Me

Being convicted of DUID in Southern California is a devastating charge, but it is essential to remember that an arrest is not a conviction. The legal and scientific challenges that arise with DUI offenses can often result in lesser or even dropped charges when a proactive defense is used. Do not allow a subjective police report to affect your future or your career. When you are charged with a DUI for drugs, you need an advocate who knows your rights and is determined to fight the prosecution’s case.

At Singh Law, we have a wealth of experience in all facets of criminal defense, especially when a DRE evaluation or laboratory error results in a drug crime conviction. We know that your job, driver’s license, and freedom are on the line, and we are here to fight for you statewide. Call us at 714-328-6189 to discuss your case with a professional DUI defense attorney.