Michigan DUI Blog

According to Specially Trained Police Your Medications are Dangerous Impairing Drugs

by Patrick T. Barone on April 18, 2012 · 0 comments

The Federal government has decided to spend hundreds of millions of dollars training ordinary police officers as “drug recognition experts.” The claim is that our highways are unsafe due to drivers impaired by drugs, and this includes prescribed medications. While the highway safety goal of removing impaired drivers is laudable, the reality is something much different.

The vast majority of the 12 step drug recognition evaluation is subjective, as is the definition of impairment. And the definition of drug is so broad that anyone taking almost any kind of medication can potentially fall prey to an OWI arrest.

And these arrests are going to become increasingly common because each year Michigan is adding to the number of trained officers. In 2011 a total of 15 Michigan law enforcement officers and four prosecutors went through the DRE training; prior to this class, Michigan had only three DREs statewide. This year many more police officers, judges and prosecutors are being trained. In 2013 the number of DRE trained officers will go up again, and it’s not stopping any time soon. The Federal government has pledged 42 Million Dollars to the mid-west states for this DRE training.

According to the Michigan State Police web site:

DREs are trained to recognize signs of impairment in drivers under the influence of drugs other than, or in addition to, alcohol and to identify the category or categories of drugs causing the impairment. DREs conduct a 12- step evaluation process to make this determination.

There are many potential problems with this evaluation and program. Perhaps the most important of them is that any person taking their lawfully prescribed medication can rather easily be arrested and wrongfully convicted of OWI or operating while intoxicated simply because their eyes didn’t look right and they could not walk a straight line to the satisfaction of the officer. For more information regarding this 12 step evaluation see: Drug Recognition Experts in Michigan.

Being arrested and convicted for prescription drug impairment is identical to being arrested and convicted for drunk driving in Michigan. The penalties are exactly the same!

If you have been arrested for drugged driving in Michigan then it is essential that you hire a well trained defense lawyers. Very few Michigan lawyers have been trained in the DRE methods. When looking for a DUI lawyer to help you be sure to ask him or her what specialized training they have. Without such training your conviction a near certainty.

About the author

Patrick T. Barone is the principal and founding member of The Barone Defense Firm, whose practice is exclusively limited to zealously defending citizens accused of intoxicated driving. The Firm has offices throughout Michigan. Mr. Barone is the author of two books on DUI defense including the well respected two volume treatise Defending Drinking Drivers (James Publishing), a chapter in Defending DUI Vehicular Homicide Cases, 2012 ed. (Aspatore Books), and has served as the executive editor of the nationally circulated legal periodical The DWI Journal: Law & Science (Whitaker Newsletters, Inc.) and the author of a monthly DUI defense column for Michigan’s Criminal Defense Newsletter. Mr. Barone is an adjunct professor at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School where he teaches Drunk Driving Law and Practice. He is a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyer’s College, and is on the faculty of the Michigan Trial Practice College. Mr. Barone frequently lectures at national and state seminars attended by lawyers, judges and scientists, and he has provided expert commentary in newspapers, on television and on radio. Mr. Barone has an “AV” (highest) rating from Martindale-Hubbell, has been listed as “Seriously Outstanding” by SuperLawyers, rated “Outstanding/10.0” by AVVO and since 2009 has been included in the highly selective US News & World Report’s America’s Best Lawyers, and The Barone Defense Firm has been included in their companion American’s Best Law Firms. He can be reached at (248) 594-4554.