Michigan DUI Book
In Michigan you can be convicted of “OWI” if you are driving with drugs in your system. Like drunk driving, there are two ways to prove OWI-drugs. Here is a small excerpt from The DUI Book:
2.2 The two general types of OWI – drugs. The Michigan crime of “OWI” can also be proven based on the presence of a drug in your system, or a combination of drugs and alcohol at the time you were operating a motor vehicle.[1] If the drug in question is a prescribed or over-the-counter drug, then the prosecutor must show that this drug or combination of this drug and alcohol caused your ability to operate the motor vehicle to be “substantially lessened.”
On the other hand, if the drug in question is a controlled substance, then the acronym for the drunk driving offense is OUID, which stands for operating under the influence of drugs. This crime is “zero tolerance,” meaning if the drug is present in your system while you are driving, then you are guilty regardless of if the drug impacted your ability to drive. The zero tolerance drugs are set forth in “Schedule 3″ of the Michigan statutes.[2]
You should understand that it is possible to be charged with this crime even for over-the-counter drugs, that is provided they affect your driving. For example, there have been instances in other states where people have been prosecuted even for drugs as benign as Benadryl. In fact, in the DRE (drug recognition expert) training program, law enforcement officers are taught using this working definition of a drug: Any substance, which when taken into the human body, can impair the ability of the person to operate a vehicle safely.
You can also be charged if the drug in question is a controlled substance. If it is, then the crime is “zero tolerance”, meaning if the drug is present in your system while you are driving, then you are guilty regardless of if the drug impacted your ability to drive. These drugs are specifically listed in the Michigan statute, and include derivatives of the main drugs, and also include the so-called designer drugs.
If you are charged in Michigan for drugged driving contact the Barone Defense Firm today for a FREE case evalulation.
[1]M.C.L.A.257.625(1)(a).
[2]M.C.L.A. 333.7210 et. seq.; M.C.L.A. 333.7216.
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Patrick T. Barone is the author on two books on DUI defense including the well respected two volume treatise Defending Drinking Drivers (James Publishing), and The DUI Book – A Citizen’s Guide to Understanding DUI Litigation in America. He is also the author of a monthly DUI defense column for the Criminal Defense Newsletter, published by Michigan’s State Appellate Defender’s Office. Mr. Barone is an adjunct professor at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School where he teaches Drunk Driving Law and Practice. He is also on the faculty of the Criminal Defense Attorney’s of Michigan’s Trial Lawyer’s College where he provides trial skills training to Michigan’s criminal defense practitioners. Mr. Barone lectures nationally on various DUI defense topics, and he has appeared in newspapers, on television and on radio as a drunk driving defense expert. Mr. Barone has been certified as an instructor and practitioner of the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests and has also attended a 24-hour certification course at National Patent Analytical Corporation (the manufacturer of the DataMaster) and has thereby been deemed competent by the manufacturer to operate, perform essential diagnostic verifications and calibration checks on the DataMaster. Mr. Barone is a Sustaining Member of College for DUI Defense. Mr. Barone is the principal and founding member of The Barone Defense Firm, whose practice is limited exclusively to defending drinking drivers. The Firm is headquartered in Birmingham, Michigan.
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