Driving Buzzed Is Driving Drunk!

[freebird]

Just saw a PSA ad on a local northern Michigan television station.

 

Had a pic of a guy busted for drunk driving arrested,fingerprinted, and mug shot.

 

Then exact same guy through the exact same motions with "drunk" replaced with

"Buzzed."

 

This is not a good sign.

To me this means the state is sanctioning hassling MMJ users for driving.

The cops WILL take direction from the top, this is the same way the seatbelt

lawz went from "never being a stoppable offense" to "Zero Tolerance" for no seat belt.

 

I am telling you the war on driving while being an MMJ patient is just heating up!

 

It goes against my grain to lie, but given the climate, deny ,deny, deny.

 

I resent the direct statement that buzzed is drunk.

It is not.Drunk is drunk.Buzzed is NOT DRUNK!

LIERS!

 

How do you deal with institutionalized Liers?

 

They just want DWI arrests,makes money, hassles MMJ folk.

Double win 4 them

 

I was stopped last tuesday and was given a very hard time.

Must have been a half hour of interrogation and sobriety tests.

But they did let me go. Thank God, and bless their little cop hearts.

[robnuvie]

See you on the 25th of May at the capitol steps in lansing. That is when MINORML brings civil service charges aginst Snider and Schutee for that exact crap right there that your talking about.

 

Notice to Appear

 

Investigation, Disciplinary Conference

 

Bill Schuette

G. Mennen Williams Building, 7th Floor 525 W. Ottawa St. P.O. Box 30212 Lansing, MI 48909

 

Date: April 1st, 2011

 

At the request of the citizens of Michigan who support Medical Marijuana, your are being directed to appear Investigatory Conference on the State Capitol Steps On May 25th, 2011 @ 12:00 Noon to investigate charges of:

 

1. Insubordination

2. Voters Rights

3. Conduct Unbecoming a State Employee

4. Misuse of State Property and Resources

 

Your presence is required. Discipline may range from; a formal counseling, written reprimand, or discharge by recall. You are welcome to bring representation to this conference. Failure to appear will not stop this process from moving forward.

 

You are required to attend a Disciplinary Conference on the Steps of the State Capitol Building @ 12:20PM. This conference is in regards to your actions on the Medical Marijuana Law and your failure to support the wishes of your employers. Discipline may range from a written reprimand, up to and including discharge by recall. You are welcome to bring representation to this meeting. Failure to appear will not stop this process from moving forward.

 

Sincerely,

Citizens of the State of Michigan et al,

Proof of Service:

I swear that on April 1st, 2011, I served a copy of this letter to Attorney General Bill Schuette at miag@michigan.gov via electronic mail /s/Richard Clement

[+EdwardGlen]

Just saw a PSA ad on a local northern Michigan television station.

 

Had a pic of a guy busted for drunk driving arrested,fingerprinted, and mug shot.

 

Then exact same guy through the exact same motions with "drunk" replaced with

"Buzzed."

 

This is not a good sign.

To me this means the state is sanctioning hassling MMJ users for driving.

The cops WILL take direction from the top, this is the same way the seatbelt

lawz went from "never being a stoppable offense" to "Zero Tolerance" for no seat belt.

 

I am telling you the war on driving while being an MMJ patient is just heating up!

 

It goes against my grain to lie, but given the climate, deny ,deny, deny.

 

I resent the direct statement that buzzed is drunk.

It is not.Drunk is drunk.Buzzed is NOT DRUNK!

LIERS!

 

How do you deal with institutionalized Liers?

 

They just want DWI arrests,makes money, hassles MMJ folk.

Double win 4 them

 

I was stopped last tuesday and was given a very hard time.

Must have been a half hour of interrogation and sobriety tests.

But they did let me go. Thank God, and bless their little cop hearts.

 

Thanks for looking out.

 

That PSA has been around for awhile even before our employees starting dehumanizing us sick and dieing and its about drinking and driving, not our medication.

 

Its trying to make the point that you when you drink you don't have be intoxicated to go to jail and with MI 0.08 alcohol level, it don't take much for some people to get "buzzed".

 

http://buzzeddriving.adcouncil.org/

 

Ed

[JimD]

As Ed points out, the PSA campaign you refer to is about drinking. The law governing impaired and intoxicated were changed about 5(?) Years ago. A BAL of .08 is now intoxicated. Impaired is now at the discretion of leo, if you get pulled over and an officer says you are then you can be arrested. It no longer matters if it was one beer or 10.

That might not sit well with some, but I am alright with it...the drunk driver that killed my sister and her boyfriend, and earned my nephew a helicoptor ride blew a .08bal. If you are partying or medicating, don't drive because you can kill people. Thanks.

[TimmyHill]

there needs to be a law on the books that shows the limits to how much thc has in ones body. perhaps some kind of ratio between active and non-active thc. our community needs this. we need a clearer understanding of the law as does law enforcement. not everyone reacts the same to liquor, cannabis, or prescription medication. we should be clamoring for some type of protections and guidelines so as to protect members of our community.

[JimD]

When the first dui laws were being writen, much was made of the differences in people's tolerance levels depending on their frequency of use. The .08 threshold was a compromise, as were the two levels of impaired and intoxicated. What is different in this circumstace is that people are using mj as a dr recommmended treatment. It is going to have to be treated like prescription meds, there is no otherway to do it imo.

[+EdwardGlen]

there needs to be a law on the books that shows the limits to how much thc has in ones body. perhaps some kind of ratio between active and non-active thc. our community needs this. we need a clearer understanding of the law as does law enforcement. not everyone reacts the same to liquor, cannabis, or prescription medication. we should be clamoring for some type of protections and guidelines so as to protect members of our community.

 

There is no need for more regulation of medical cannabis in Michigan. The MMMA covers what needs to be covered and does not need to be amended in any way shape or form period.

 

There are DUID laws already on the books and one person metabolizes THC differently from another. So a set amount of THC present in the blood may be low for some and extremely high for others.

 

Treat medical cannabis like any prescription narcotic and don't drive for several hours after medicating and you should be fine.

[TimmyHill]

There is no need for more regulation of medical cannabis in Michigan. The MMMA covers what needs to be covered and does not need to be amended in any way shape or form period.

 

There are DUID laws already on the books and one person metabolizes THC differently from another. So a set amount of THC present in the blood may be low for some and extremely high for others.

 

Treat medical cannabis like any prescription narcotic and don't drive for several hours after medicating and you should be fine.

sorry. i agree to disagree with you. there needs to be some sort of guideline that we all know that we cannot cross just like with alcohol. and, just because someone is a patient of a doctor and prescibed pain pills and if they are in their system and they get into a wreck there is a zero tolerance for them as well if any trace amount of a narcotic is in your system. we need some sort of "set in stone law" that we all can follow and that will only help patients - not hinder them. don't say we can't drive for several hours just because we took a few puffs off of a vaporizer or joint or pipe a few hours ago. we all basically know how much one can drink and not flirt with that .08 blood alcohol content and we need the same exact type of regulation with medical marijuana.

[Broken]

In my eyes if they aren't testing for every legal drug that impairs your ability to drive then they have no right to single out just one.

[SkiBindings]

In my eyes if they aren't testing for every legal drug that impairs your ability to drive then they have no right to single out just one.

They actually do test for legal drugs when they can get the probable cause necessary to draw the blood. It isn't uncommon for someone to be busted for hydrocodone, etc. The difference with med mj is that the probable cause is easier to establish because, unlike pills, it can be smelled. So, drive like an idiot and get pulled over for that and then the officer smells freshly smoked mj then you're going to get tested. drive like an idiot after popping a vicodin and the only way to establish the probable cause is you failing field sobriety tests.

 

The lesson to be learned here is don't mess with the cellphone or stereo and end up crossing the center line, etc., and getting pulled over. And, of course, don't drive under the influence.

[Uncle Bud]

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/04/thc_blood_test_pot_critic_william_breathes_3_times_over_limit_sober.php

 

THC blood test: Pot critic William Breathes nearly 3 times over proposed limit when sober

 

Last week, in advance of today's Senate debate over a bill that would set THC driving limits, I had blood drawn (for a second time) to see just how much active THC was in my blood even after a night of sleep and not smoking for fifteen hours.

 

As it turns out, I've got a lot. So much that I and thousands of other medical marijuana patients may be risking arrest every time we drive if the measure passes. Even when deemed sober by a doctor, my active THC levels were almost triple the proposed standard of 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood.

 

Among the concerns about HB 1261, the THC driving bill first offered by Representative Claire Levy, is the fact that THC can stay in the body days after patients medicate. And my latest test offers proof.

 

The lab ran a serum/plasma test which showed my THC count to be at 27. According to Dr. Alan Shackelford, who ordered the blood work and evaluated my results, the number of active THC nanograms per milliliter count is about half of that total, or 13.5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood.

 

In short: If this bill passes and I was pulled over by police, I would be over the limit by 8.5 nanograms. By that logic, I would be more likely to have mowed down a family in my car on my way to the doctor's office that day than actually arriving there safely. But I didn't -- because I wasn't impaired.

 

Don't take my word for it. According to Shackelford, who evaluated me before writing the order to have my blood drawn last Wednesday, I was "in no way incapacitated." According to him, my test results show that it would not be uncommon to see such a high level in other people who use cannabis regularly -- like medical marijuana patients. "Your level was about 13.5 for whole blood... which would have made you incapacitated on a lab value," he said. "They need to vote this sucker down based on that alone."

 

Frankly, I didn't even need to go through this effort to prove that. Levy appears to understand that the limit might unintentionally hurt patients like me, since she's shared her concern that 5 nanograms is too low. Yet the bill still moved through to the senate.

 

Now, with some actual proof from a Colorado medical marijuana patient that this is the case, could someone curb this bill?

 

The Senate Judiciary Committee will discuss HB 1261 today at 1:30 p.m. at the Capitol Building. The hearing will offer the last time public comment will be heard about the proposal.

 

More from our Marijuana archive: "THC driving limits could cause more innocent people to spend months in jail, attorney says."