Medical Marijuana and New York DWAI Charges
In 2014, New York enacted the Compassionate Care Act legalizing marijuana for medical use when the user has a doctor’s prescription. The law allows for New York residents to use certain non-smokable marijuana products to treat symptoms of conditions such as chronic pain, Parkinson’s Disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, and AIDS. The law does not, however, make it legal to drive shortly after having consumed medical marijuana products. Due to the flaws in chemical tests for the presence of marijuana in the body, medical marijuana patients are at a special risk of being convicted of driving while ability impaired by drugs (DWAI Drugs).
A rigorous defense to DWAI charges for medical marijuana patients
If you’re a medical marijuana user who has been charged with DWAI in New York, you deserve a dedicated and aggressive defense against these charges. Get help avoiding the fines and loss of driving privileges that can accompany a DWAI conviction by contacting the effective and knowledgeable Hudson Valley DWAI defense lawyers at Dupée & Monroe for a consultation on your case.
Problems of proof when prosecuting DWAI charges based on marijuana use
Regardless of whether the drug was legally obtained and used, it is illegal to drive in New York while your ability to do so is impaired by a controlled substance, such as marijuana. That said, marijuana’s effects on the user, as well as the ability to objectively measure its presence in the blood, is difficult to ascertain and is entirely unlike that of alcohol. There is no widely-available roadside test that can accurately measure the amount of THC (marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient) in a driver’s system, and similar quantities of the drug do not produce similar effects in all users. Research shows that people who have recently used marijuana do not respond to field sobriety tests in the same manner as people intoxicated by alcohol. Even chemical tests of the blood and urine can provide inaccurate or deceiving results due to the fact that different bodies process the drug at different rates.
Charges of DWAI based on marijuana intoxication are, as a result, often based on subjective observations by police rather than objective evidence that a driver was a danger to others. For these and other reasons, users of medical marijuana who are charged with DWAI are strongly advised to obtain the help of a seasoned defense attorney. The DWAI defense lawyers at Dupée & Monroe are experienced in holding prosecutors’ feet to the fire, demanding that DWAI charges are supported by credible evidence, and that arresting officers upheld drivers’ constitutional rights throughout the process.
Experienced New York DWI Criminal Defense Attorneys
If you’re facing DWAI charges in the Hudson Valley based on medical marijuana use, contact the determined and professional Goshen DWAI drugs defense attorneys at Dupée & Monroe at 845-294-8900.
