Prescription Drug DWI
In North Carolina, you may be at risk of arrest and conviction of Driving While Impaired (DWI) if you routinely take certain prescription medications.

December 17, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Prescription Drug DWI

Article provided by The Law Offices of J. Randolph Ingram, II
Visit us at www.jringram.com

Do you routinely take prescription medications? Do these medications have warnings on the bottle such as "may cause drowsiness," "do not drive while taking this medication" "use caution when operating a car"? Do you take pain medications such as Hydrocodone or muscle relaxers such as Flexeril? Do you take antidepressants such as Wellbutrin or Zoloft? Do you take anxiety medications such as Valium or Diazepam? If so, in North Carolina, you may be at risk of arrest and conviction of Driving While Impaired!

To be convicted of DWI, you must be found operating a motor vehicle on the streets or highways of our state while subject to an impairing substance. You may be convicted if you blow .08 or above on an alcohol breath testing instrument or if you are "appreciably impaired." Drug DWI's fall under the appreciable impairment prong of our DWI Statute. Unlike alcohol, which usually, (but not always) requires you blow above a threshold; there is no minimal threshold for drug DWI.

Typically, if an officer has probable cause to stop a vehicle for suspicion of impaired driving, he will check for the odor of alcohol. If he notes no odor, he may ask if you are taking any medications. If you answer yes, he might ask you to perform "preexist screening tests" such as finger count, ABC's or backward count. The officer may then ask you to step out of your vehicle and perform "Standardized Field Sobriety Tests" such as HGN (Horizontal Gaze Nystagmous), one leg stand and walk and turn. Depending on your performance, he may then call in a "Drug Recognition Expert" (DRE). This DRE is certified (after 72 hours of class time) to measure your pupil size, take your blood pressure, take your temperature, check your pulse rate, etc. The DRE may or may not be the stopping/arresting officer. The DRE will then form an opinion as to whether or not in his opinion you are appreciably impaired so as to lose the normal control of your physical and/or mental faculties. You will then be taken to have your blood drawn and tested. If blood testing discloses a "trace" of an impairing substance, without regard to its amount, (there is no quantification) you may be convicted of DWI if the DRE's opinion of appreciable impairment convinces the Court.

Your case therefore rests upon the opinion of the Drug Recognition Expert who looks at a Matrix chart which tells him, for instance, that with narcotic analgesics he should find increased pulse rate, constricted pupils and decreased temperature. Based on this matrix chart and his training to take your vital signs, etc., your performance on sobriety tests and his "opinion" of impairment, you may be found guilty. This is without regard to medicinal amounts found in your system. This is without regard to any quantification of the amount of any lawfully prescribed medication. This is without regard to whether or not you have taken the medication precisely as prescribed.

Valium (Anxiety):
-Confusion
-Fever
-Drowsiness
-Dizziness
-Memory Problems

Flexeril (Muscle Relaxant):
-Dizziness
-Drowsiness
-Nervousness
-Fast Pulse
-Confusion

Hydrocodone (Pain):
-Dizziness
-Sweating
-Nervousness
-Fast Pulse
-Fever

Wellbutrin (Antidepressant):
-Dizziness
-Drowsiness
-Sweating
-Nervousness
-Confusion

These known side effects do not equate with "appreciable impairment." There are many reasons other than drug impairment for dilation or constriction of one's pupils. There are many reasons other than drug impairment for increased or decreased pulse rates.

Do you take a beta blocker (Alenolol, Lopressor etc.) to slow your heart rate? Have you ever had a temperature because you were sick and not impaired? Do you have an unknown or known brain tumor causing dilation of pupils? Do you have Adies Syndrome, a neurological disorder which causes one pupil to react more slowly to light? Do you have naturally high blood pressure? Is your pulse increased because you have been stopped for DWI? In short, there are many physiological causes for the very signs the Drug Recognition Expert is looking for.

If you take prescription drugs and drive, you are at the mercy of the arresting officer and the DRE. Often there is no videotape of your sobriety tests. Usually there is no independent witness of your sobriety tests. Your performance is in the eyes of the beholder, the police officer. Therefore, if you take medications with known side effects and you drive should you discuss your medical history and what medications you take with an inquiring officer? If you take such drugs, should you attempt to perform any sobriety tests? If you do any of the above, you are only helping the state build a case against you. There is no penalty for refusing the above. The only penalty under the law for refusing an officer's request is the loss of license for refusing to blow downtown on the Intoxilizer or Intoximeter (the large machine, not the pocket breathalyzer). If you take lawfully prescribed medications with known side effects you should use great caution in North Carolina. You can be convicted of Driving While Impaired.

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