Tuesday, January 25, 2011

DUI Involving Drugs on the Rise

For police, DUI enforcement used to be very straightforward, you smell alcohol on the drivers breath and initiate a series of field sobriety tests to confirm the persons level of intoxication.  However, nowadays it is not unusual for drivers to be impaired on any number of the thousands of prescription drugs in the marketplace.  The rules have changed for law enforcement, says one Prescription Drug DUI Attorney , the same types of tell tale indicators that were useful for alcohol are inapplicable for drug detection.  Some in the legal field are calling for a revamping of the standards utilized to detect impaired drivers.

In many police agencies officers are required to undergo training for drug detection and some have even opted for more extensive certification for DUI drug enforcement known as the DRE qualification.  In fact in some northern California counties DUI involving prescription drugs and marijuana now outnumber those for alcohol.  According to one Marijuana DUI Attorney the same field sobriety tests that police used 10 years ago are now obsolete when it comes to drug intoxication.