If you were detained by the police and the officer suspected the presence of illegal drugs in your system, you may have been arrested for driving under the influence of illegal drugs, illegal drugs and DUI. The most common contraband drugs found by police have always been cocaine and marijuana, with the smell of marijuana being more of a dead giveaway than the smell of alcohol. But over the last decade there has been a steady increase in the use of methamphetamine (ice), heroin and crack cocaine, plus new illegal drugs like synthetic marijuana (spice). If you were arrested for DUI, the police will search your car to find any drug paraphernalia that can be used as evidence at your trial.
Effects of Illegal Drugs
Driving under the influence of marijuana and other illegal drug use while operating a motor vehicle can cause you to drive way under the speed limit, weave in and out of your lane, and hesitate too long after a stoplight turns green. All of these suspicious driving maneuvers draw a police officer’s attention to your car, and there is a high likelihood you will get pulled over. If a police officer sees you reach under your seat or throw something out the window after he or she has indicated for you to stop, these actions may be “caught on tape” and can be damaging in court. A thorough DUI attorney will watch the DUI police video of your arrest, find ways to attack the validity of your arrest, and file pre-trial motions to suppress any police evidence collected illegally.
Testing for the Presence of Illegal Drugs
To test you for possible illegal drugs and DUI, the police will have to arrest you for DUI and bring you to a medical facility or police station to obtain a urine test sample or blood test sample. A urine test will reveal low levels of contraband drugs longer than a blood test. Your kidneys slowly and constantly remove the breakdown and waste products of most chemical substances from your body. Because your kidneys concentrate these waste products from your bloodstream, the residue of any illegal drugs is detectable in your urine for much longer than in your blood.
Depending on how critically the State wants to analyze a urine sample from you, drugs you may have taken months ago may cause your urine test to be positive. If all the police do is dip a test strip into your urine (the most common form of drug testing which can be done anywhere), illegal drugs such as marijuana, amphetamines, narcotics and barbiturates may all be detected in your urine sample for weeks after you were exposed to the drugs. If the police send the urine sample off for a more critical analysis to a crime lab, even more minute amounts of these illegal drugs can be detected for months after your exposure.
The number of illegal drugs that can impair your ability to drive keeps increasing, and only a well-trained DUI lawyer will have the latest information on the impairment effects of illegal drugs. An illegal drugs and DUI case is our specialty. Call us at 1-888-839-4384 day or night.
More DUI Drugs Resources
If you’d like to learn more about DUI for illegal drugs, take a look at some of our comprehensive articles on the subject below:
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