Montgomery County Drug DUI Attorney
There are two ways that you will get one of the drug related DUI citations in Montgomery County. Some officers will write a DUI drug citation if you don’t give a breathalyzer; meaning since you didn’t give them a breath test, they can’t tell if you are high or drunk and they’ll write you citations for both alcohol and drugs. Those citations almost invariably get dropped in district court. That theory of impaired driving is virtually impossible to prove unless there’s some kind of affirmative evidence of drug use, those types of cases can get thrown out.
The other type of case where you can be charged with a DUI drug in Montgomery County is when the office actually has some type of reason to believe that you were driving impaired by drug. That can either come in the form of an admission where someone will admit to being under the influence of prescription drugs. That could then justify a driving while impaired by drug charge. The other one is a controlled dangerous substance (CDS) charge. The officer believes you were impaired by some kind of controlled dangerous substance which a lot more likely obviously if they find some kind of controlled dangerous substance on your purse or in your presence. Then they will charge you the 21-902(d) offense.
Prosecution of Drug DUI in Montgomery County
Drug DUI charges are not as common as alcohol DUI charges in Montgomery County, but they do happen. There are two basic scenarios where an individual will be charged with a drug DUI. One of them is almost completely unprovable by the state, and that is when an individual refuses to cooperate with the completion of a breath test. Then, an officer has the opportunity to write the DUI drug citation under the theory that they’re not sure if you were drunk or high at the time you took the test (since you didn’t take the test). Those cases are almost always unwinnable by the State’s Attorney’s office. They can very rarely successfully prosecute somebody for driving while impaired by drugs without chemical evidence or an admission of guilt to support their charges.
How Police Officers Enforce Drug DUI
The other type of DUI drug charge is where the officer really does suspect that an individual is impaired by drugs. That can happen either after an individual blows zero into a breathalyzer machine, or it can happen based on conversations with the individual or other evidence found in the vehicle. It can happen, for example, if the car is pulled over and the officer finds a great deal of drugs and the individual admits to taking drugs prior to driving, and this can apply to both controlled dangerous substances and prescription medications. Because they’re so much less frequent than alcohol DUIs, there are much fewer convictions for drug DUIs in Montgomery County.
Contact a Montgomery County Drug DUI Lawyer
There’s no requirement that you’re under the influence of illegal drug to be charged with a drug DUI. A person can feel drowsy due to something as innocuous as Benadryl and find themselves pulled over and subsequently charged with a DUID. These cases can be difficult to deal with, especially if the prosecution has evidence from blood tests supporting them. However, a drug DUI lawyer with experience in Montgomery County can work with you to shine doubt on the blood test results and hopefully get them thrown out.