Adderall, Ambien, and I-285 Commutes The Rise of DUI-Drugs in GA

The daily commute to work on Interstate 285 is often tense, a crawl of red brake lights and tailgating that tests the patience of each driver. In order to cope with the pressures of intense jobs or life in general, many Georgians take legally obtained prescriptions such as Adderall for concentration, Ambien for insomnia or other speciality prescriptions from the Low THC Oil registry. You follow doctor’s orders, get in your car and hit the road without a care in the world, believing that you are a safe driver. But if you get pulled over by a Georgia State Patrol officer for a mere tailgating or lane change, that simple commute to work can suddenly transform into an interrogation. The horrifying truth is that you do not need to have a sip of beer, a glass of wine or take a shot of tequila to end up alongside the Perimeter, cuffed and staring at your life savings for a DUI charge involving drugs.

The dangerous myth is that drinking and driving and driving under the influence of street drugs is all that happens under DUI laws. The law is incredibly broad in Georgia. State law makes it illegal to drive a motor vehicle while under the influence of any drug to the point that it is less safe for you to drive. The most surprising aspect of this law is that the fact you have a legitimate prescription from your doctor is no defense to a DUI prosecution. The prosecution will not believe you when you explain that your doctor prescribed you Adderall to take with your coffee. If the police officer thinks the drug slowed down your reaction time, made you stutter or sway, or changed your physiology in some way, you’ll be arrested and charged with the same forceful passion as if you were actually intoxicated.

Without the objective measurement of driving above a 0.08 blood alcohol content, law enforcement officers rely heavily on special skills: the “narc test”. During the traffic stop, an officer will inspect the size of your pupils, pay attention to how you talk and try to grossly over-estimate your medical history. They might request an officer known as a Drug Recognition Expert, or DRE, one who has received training to detect physical symptoms associated with different types of drugs. They will require you to undergo a physically arduous series of flawed tests. If you can’t stand on one foot on the median of I-285 it does not prove that your prescription drug is impairing your vision, but the police will write it down as indisputable evidence of guilt. This is why you need a brilliant Atlanta DUI Lawyer to discredit the pseudo-scientific nature of several of these roadside drug tests and how susceptible they are to human error.

After you are arrested, you will probably undergo a state-conducted blood test to determine whether or not you are impaired by pharmacology. Here’s where the state’s arguments can be (and often are) highly deceptive. Unlike alcohol, where the rate of elimination is predictable, residual amounts of prescription medications and marijuana (THC) metabolites can be detected in your bloodstream long after the beneficial or impairing effects of the substance have disappeared. The fact that you had a positive blood test only means that you took your medicine – it does not mean that you were impaired when you were driving. To combat these sophisticated toxicology reports, you need a ferocious Atlanta DUI Attorney with a good understanding of pharmacology. A master litigator will pick holes in the state’s toxicology lab test, and ask to see levels of the active drug in your blood (as opposed to the inactive metabolites) to demonstrate that you were not impaired at the time of arrest.

A DUI-Drugs claim can be devastating because it assaults your reputation and criminalizes your medical history. A DUI-Drugs conviction will result in exactly the same devastating consequences as a DUI Alcohol conviction, including exorbitant fines, probation, suspended driver’s licenses and a permanent criminal history that could cost you your job. You can’t simply walk into court and show the judge your prescription and expect leniency. You need to hire a fierce DUI Lawyer Atlanta drivers fear who can construct a very complex defense strategy which exposes the officer’s initial suspicion for stopping you, and undermines their subjective assessment of your physical appearance. Facing the possibility of jail time, the loss of your job and your reputation, hiring a relentless DUI Attorney Atlanta courts respect to ruthlessly challenge the harsh justice system in place is the only way to fight back and protect your future.

Adderall, Ambien, and I-285 Commutes The Rise of DUI-Drugs in GA

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