DUI While Sober—Again?

Activists must stay ever-vigilant as drug warriors clone ill bills

This past May, California medical cannabis activists and drug law reform groups celebrated the defeat of a bill to jail sober drivers for DUI. But the victory was frustratingly short. The bill’s language was cloned in a renewed effort to create crime and put innocent Californians in jail.

Chino Assemblywoman Norma Torres’ AB 2552 would have made it “a crime for a person who has any level of cannabinoids or synthetic cannabinoid compounds, as defined, in his or her blood or urine to drive a vehicle.” Torres withdrew the bill May 2 under withering fire from patients’ rights group, who noted that sober medical cannabis patients would be locked up under the law, because marijuana molecules—cannabinoids—reside in their blood or urine days and weeks after abstaining from the plant.

Meanwhile on April 16, as activists worked to defeat AB 2552, Santa Ana Democratic Senator Lou Correa “gutted and amended” Senate Bill 50, removing its language on political gifts and replacing it with a law to—wait for it—“make it a crime for a person to have a controlled substance in his or her blood while driving a vehicle.”

MAKING CRIME

Dale Gieringer, head of California NORML, called the Correa bill even more astoundingly illogical than Torres’.

“Since marijuana remains in the blood for as along as a week in chronic users, the bill would effectively make every MMJ patient who drives de facto DUI. Just as absurdly, the bill would apply to anyone driving with controlled substances such as Vicodin, Valium, amphetamine, codeine, etc in their bloodstream,” he wrote.

As CULTURE explained in our May issue, current state law already criminalizes “driving under the influence” of any drug, and California road deaths are at their lowest point since record-keeping began. Sen. Correa’s office would not comment on the legislative intent of SB 50. However, defense attorney Manny Daskal, who sits on the board of directors of the California DUI Lawyers Association, says that just like AB 2552, SB 50 is about railroading drugged driving suspects.

Prosecutors currently face challenges proving “under the influence” in court without aggravating circumstances like a collision. Urine tests for cannabis do not conclusively prove intoxication, and blood tests are expensive and rare, Daskal says. Moreover, studies presented in court show regular cannabis users who are sober can have cannabinoid levels higher than first-time users who are intoxicated.

Under SB 50, the mere presence of any cannabinoids—or any controlled substance for that matter—in the blood is as good as a conviction.

That means money in the pockets of cops and District Attorneys.

THE SANTA ANA DRUG WARRIOR

Torres pulled AB 2552 after lobbyists reasoned with her, but only politics is likely to sway Sen. Correa—a known drug warrior, says David Goldman, San Francisco organizer for Americans for Safe Access.

“He’s been a problem child in the Senate for a while,” Goldman says. “I think we’re going to have show him he’s going to have to withdraw it. We have to present in a political frame rather than a moral one.”

As of press time, Sen. Correa’s SB 50 heads to the Senate rules committee, and it faces a long road out of the Senate and through the Assembly. The Assembly’s public safety committee, chaired by San Francisco Rep. Tom Ammiano has become a firewall between Sacramento legislators and California patients.

“I’m cautiously optimistic the Assembly public safety committee will defeat this,” Goldman says.

Sen. Correa’s bill offers more proof that activists need to stay ever-vigilant as long the statehouse is in session, he says.

“If you don’t, they’re going to walk all over you,” Goldman says. “I never underestimate the intelligence of these people.”

In the Zone

State Sen. Lou Correa really hasn’t made a progressive name for himself in marijuana circles. Far from it, actually. Last year, the senator unsuccessfully pushed for a bill that would have 600-foot barriers between dispensaries and homes—a move that had activists and patients crying foul over limiting access to medicine. Luckily, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed SB 847, saying that any such zoning requirements should be handled by local government, not state law. Go, Moonbeam!