Driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana is punishable in the same way, but the process to prove the charge is different.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The arrest of a Phoenix Suns player is drawing attention to Arizona’s marijuana related DUI laws.
RELATED: ‘It smells like a dispensary in your car’: Video shows arrest of Suns’ Dillon Brooks
Driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana is punishable in the same way, but the process to prove the charge is different.
“It takes a lot less to charge a marijuana DUI than it does an alcohol DUI,” criminal defense attorney Josh Kolsrud said.
A Scottsdale police officer stopped Dillon Brooks last Friday morning for allegedly failing to stay in one lane six times.
Body-camera video of the traffic stop shows the officer asking Brooks about recent marijuana use several times.
“It smells like a dispensary in your car,” the officer said.
Brooks told the officer he hadn’t smoked marijuana in the past six months.
He completed a field sobriety test and blew a 0.0 on the breathalyzer. The officer arrested him, but no charges have been filed yet.
Kolsrud told 12News that field sobriety tests are used to build probable cause of impairment, but these cases often come down to the blood test, which will show the different levels of THC in someone’s system.
“You’re going to have primary metabolites, that is, metabolites that are digesting the THC right now. You’re going to have secondary metabolites that are still there, but they’re inactive, maybe from two weeks ago, and then tertiary metabolites that are maybe a month old, where the THC is really being broken down into molecules and almost undetectable,” Kolsrud said.
Active THC metabolites are needed for prosecutors to have a case, but even then, it doesn’t prove someone was impaired behind the wheel.
“That doesn’t automatically mean that you’re guilty. The prosecutor will still have to prove that you’re impaired in your driving,” attorney Benjamin Taylor said.
Taylor said swerving between lanes and speeding can be signs of impairment, but if prosecutors decide to file charges, it’s up to the jury to decide.
“That’s going to be the determining factor,” Taylor said.
A 2021 National Institute of Justice study found that field sobriety tests and THC levels are unreliable indicators of marijuana intoxication.
Kolsrud said tests are improving.
“I think prosecutors will charge these cases even more than they used to because the technology is so much more accurate,” Kolsrud said.
Police said blood is still being analyzed in the lab, which typically takes three to four weeks in DUI drug cases.
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