Pubdate: Fri, 02 Mar 2012
Source: East Valley Tribune (AZ)
Copyright: 2012 East Valley Tribune
Contact: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/opinion/submit_a_letter/
Website: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2708
Author: Garin Groff, Tribune

MEDICAL MARIJUANA, PRESCRIPTIONS BOOST NUMBER OF DRUG DUIS IN MESA

Mesa police are arresting more drivers for drug impairment, saying 
prescription drug abuse and Arizona’s medical marijuana law are 
contributing to the problem.

Drug DUIs now make up a majority of impaired driving arrests in Mesa 
for the first time. The number of drug-impaired drivers has grown for 
years but it has spiked more recently, said Mesa Sgt. David Miecke. 
Fifty-two percent of DUIs issued last year in the city were for drugs, he said.

“For us to think that there’s more people out there driving on drugs 
than alcohol is startling,” Miecke said. “It’s harder to detect a 
drug-impaired person than an alcohol-impaired person.”

Marijuana impairment has grown over time, he said. But it accelerated 
as Arizona was debating the 2010 ballot measure that legalized medical 
marijuana, and boomed after its success, he said.

Police saw a big increase in drug impairment during a DUI task force 
that spanned December, he said. Fifty-six percent of DUIs during the 
holidays were for drugs in 2011, compared with just 16 percent in 2002.

Arizona’s medical marijuana law doesn’t exempt users from DUIs, and 
police can arrest drivers for the slightest degree of impairment for 
alcohol, prescription drugs and illegal substances. An increasing 
number of drivers flaunt the law, Miecke said.

“They’re pretty confident that just because they have that card, that 
they can be smoking at will and through their daily lives,” he said. 
“They seem to think that’s OK, they can do whatever they want.”

Marijuana can impair driving for a day or more after use, he said.

The drug-impaired drivers have ranged from teenagers to people in 
their 70s. Miecke said the death of Whitney Houston, whose substance 
abuse problem may have contributed to her passing, shows how 
widespread prescription drug abuse has become.

“It touches everybody, across all ages, all economic statuses and 
races,” he said. “People are using more prescription medications and 
it’s very easy to abuse them and easy to obtain them, even if you 
don’t have a prescription.”

Miecke expects marijuana-impaired drivers will become even more common 
as dispensaries open, which is expected over the summer.

Drug-impaired drivers exhibit the same behaviors on the road as drunk 
drivers, including delayed response time. Detecting alcohol use is 
easy and inexpensive with a breath test, but there’s no equivalent for drugs.

Portable machines cost thousands of dollars, and each test is 
expensive. Most police take a suspect’s blood and have it tested in a 
lab, but Miecke said a backlog in Arizona can make police wait up to a 
year for results. Mesa recently started its own lab to get results 
within a month or two.

Police have responded to the increase in drug use with improved 
training so they are better at detecting impairment and documenting it 
for prosecution.

“To think that we’re not doing something about it or to think you 
might be able to get away with it, that’s a fallacy,” Miecke said. 
“Seventeen hundred went away to jail last year here in Mesa for DUI drugs.”
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.