Seattle Police are preparing to arrest more marijuana impaired drivers

I saw this news story a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to blog about it.  However work has gotten really crazy lately and I’m now just getting to it so I apologize.  Now that the first legal marijuana shop has opened in Seattle (as well as other areas.)  The Seattle Police are preparing to drop the hammer and arrest more people for marijuana DUI cases in Seattle.

In this story on King 5 news the reporter interviewed a member of the Seattle DUI squad.  The interview itself was pretty much what I call “coach speak.”  Which is a term I use when talking about interviews that football coaches give.  Where they basically say generic stuff, were going to work harder, blah, blah, blah.

In the interview this particular Officer pretty much gave the same generic answers you would expect to hear about marijuana impaired drivers in Seattle.  But one quote stuck me and here it is.  “If you’re going to consume alcohol, don’t drive. If you are planning on smoking or ingesting marijuana, don’t drive,” he said. “It’s the only safe thing to do.”

Again I harp on this all the time.  But this just goes to show me that the Seattle Police do not care if you’re under the legal limit.  Whether its alcohol related or marijuana.  It doesn’t matter.  If you consume alcohol or smoke or ingest marijuana you will get arrested for DUI.  They don’t care anymore.

Now they may say you will only get arrested if you shows signs of impairment.  Well guess what.  How is making that determination.  It’s not some impartial third party witness.  It’s the Officer who is investigating you.  And these subjective opinions are easy to fudge.

Here is an example.  Let’s say a woman goes out.  She has a glass of wine and then decides to drive home.  Since she went out to a fancy restaurant she is wearing stilleto heals.  She gets contacted by a police officer.  The officer asks her to exit her vehicle.  When she steps out she rolls her ankle because she is on the side of the road and she is wearing 4 inch heels.  Well the officer sees that and says you stumbled out of your vehicle.  Now throughout the entire investigation even if you do well on the field sobriety tests.  You will get arrested for a Seattle DUI because according to that police officer you lost your balance when you exited your vehicle and that is a sign you were affected by alcohol.

Anyway here is the link if you interested in reading it.

_
About the author:  Matthew Leyba is a DUI lawyer in Seattle.  He has been repeatedly recognized as a Rising Star in the area of DUI Defense by the Seattle Met Magazine.  Additionally he is rated a perfect 10 out of 10 by Avvo.com when it comes to DUI lawyers in Seattle.