[mgj-discuss] ALERT: Please Tell Congress To Identify Impaired Drivers

[Richard Lake]

PLEASE TELL CONGRESS TO IDENTIFY IMPAIRED DRIVERS

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NOTE: This alert is also on line at http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0288.html

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #288 Wednesday, 21 April 2004

Yesterday the Cincinnati Post published an OPED and an Editorial, below, 
about a new bill before Congress. The NORML website describes the bill as 
follows:

H.R. 3922, sponsored by a bipartisan coalition of legislators including 
Reps. Robert Portman (R-OH), Sander Levin (D-MI), Steven LaTourette (R-OH), 
Mark Souder (R-IN) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN), seeks to impose so-called 
"model" DUID legislation upon all 50 states - demanding they enact statutes 
sanctioning anyone who operates a motor vehicle "while any detectable 
amount of a controlled substance is present in the person's body, as 
measured in the person's blood, urine, saliva, or other bodily substance."

And another is a bill aimed at the same target, also as described by NORML:

H.R. 3907, sponsored by Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV), demands that state 
legislatures amend their DUID (driving under the influence of drugs) to 
enact mandatory minimum penalties for anyone convicted of driving under the 
influence of illegal drugs. Under the proposal, states have until 2006 to 
pass and enforce DUID laws "approved by the Administrator of the National 
Highway Traffic Safety Administration," or lose portions of their federal 
highway funding.

The OPED below clearly points out the problem with these bills, and the 
Editorial gives additional reasons for taking action.

Need More Facts? See:

Cannabis and Driving http://www.drugwardistortions.org/distortion12.htm

and

References on Drugs and Driving 
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Misc/driving/contents.htm

Related news clippings may be found at

http://www.mapinc.org/topics/impaired+driving

and

http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Cannabis and Driving)

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ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE:

Write a LTEs to the papers in your state about this issue. This is a good 
example of a topic that may result in a printed letter without the need to 
tie it to any other specific item the papers may have printed.

To find your state/local newspapers, go to MAP's media links page at:

http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm

Using the 'List by Area" dropdown find and bring up the list of newspapers 
in your state and their LTE contact. Note those with the higher numbers of 
Clippings or Excerpts as this tends to indicate a higher interest by the 
paper in our issues, and thus should be your first targets.

Also consider sending them both the OPED and the Editorial. Ask your papers 
to please print similar editorial page items about these bills.

And last, but not least, let your members of congress know about how you 
feel about this issue. If you can, visit with the members, or visit their 
state/local offices as telling them or their staff directly always shows a 
deep concern, stronger than any other message.

You can use NORML's Take Action page to send your concern to your Member of 
Congress. Just go to this link, personalize the message with your own 
thoughts and facts, and send. It is easy and fast:

http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=5384696

Thanks for your effort and support.

               It's not what others do it's what YOU do

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PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID
(Letter, email messages, etc.)

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent letter 
list (sentlte at mapinc.org) if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy 
directly to MGreer at mapinc.org if you are not subscribed. Your letter will 
then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts and be 
motivated to follow suit.

This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging our 
impact and effectiveness.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list (sentlte at mapinc.org) will help you to 
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as 
well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see
http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm
and/or
http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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The OPED:

Pubdate: Tue, 20 Apr 2004
Source: Cincinnati Post (OH)
Copyright: 2004 The Cincinnati Post
Contact: postedits at cincypost.com
Website: http://www.cincypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/87
Author: Paul Armentano
Note: Paul Armentano is the senior policy analyst for the NORML Foundation 
in Washington, DC.

PORTMAN BILL IS EXCESSIVE

Imagine if it was against the law to drive home after consuming a single 
glass of wine at dinner. Now imagine it was against the law to do so after 
having consumed a single glass of wine two weeks ago.

Sound absurd? No more so than newly proposed Congressional legislation by 
Ohio Rep. Rob Portman mandating that each state enact laws sanctioning 
anyone who operates a motor vehicle "while any detectable amount of a 
controlled substance is present in the person's body, as measured in the 
person's blood, urine, saliva, or other bodily substance."

While the expressed purpose of this legislation, the "Drug Impaired Driving 
Enforcement Act of 2004," is to target and remove drug-impaired drivers 
from our nation's roadways, the reality is that this poorly worded proposal 
would do little to improve public safety. Rather, it would falsely 
categorize sober drivers as "intoxicated" simply if they had consumed an 
illicit substance, particularly marijuana, some days or weeks earlier.

A case in point. John and Jane Doe attend a party. John enjoys a glass of 
wine while Jane takes a puff from a marijuana cigarette. The next day, John 
and Jane are pulled over. John is given a breathalyzer test and tests 
negative for alcohol. Jane is asked to submit to a urine test and tests 
positive for marijuana. Jane is then arrested for "driving under the 
influence of drugs," despite the fact that any impairment she experienced 
from smoking marijuana would have worn off hours earlier.

That's because Portman's proposal, so-called "zero tolerance" per se 
legislation, presumes individuals guilty of driving while intoxicated 
simply if trace levels of a controlled substances or even drug metabolites 
(inactive compounds indicative of past drug use) are detected in their 
bodily fluids -- even if the individual is neither under the influence nor 
impaired to drive. For anyone who enjoys an occasional toke from a 
marijuana cigarette, this news ought to be especially unsettling, as 
marijuana metabolites are often detectable in a person's urine for days or 
even weeks after the drug is consumed.

Aside from being poorly drafted, this unfunded federal mandate from 
Congress is unnecessary. All states already have DUID (driving under the 
influence of drugs) statutes on the books. Most are "effect-based" laws 
that forbid drivers to operate a motor vehicle if they are either "under 
the influence" of a controlled substance, or if they have been rendered 
"incapable of driving safely" because of their use of an illicit drug. This 
is a multidisciplinary standard that focuses on the totality of 
circumstances and rightly punishes motorists who drive while impaired from 
having recently used illicit drugs.

There is no need for additional legislation, especially from the federal 
government.

While driving under the influence of illicit and licit substances is 
obviously a serious issue, Portman's proposal neither addresses the problem 
nor offers a legitimate solution. "Zero tolerance" laws are neither a safe 
nor sensible way to identify impaired drivers; they are an attempt to 
misuse the traffic safety laws in order to identify and prosecute 
recreational drug users.

At a minimum, laws targeting drug drivers should identify "parent drugs" 
(in other words, cocaine or THC), not simply inactive drug metabolites. 
Further, these laws must have scientifically sound cut-off levels that 
correlate drug concentration to impairment of performance, similar to the 
0.08 BAC standard that now exists for drunk driving. There must also be 
assurances that the laws mandate any and all drug testing to be performed 
and confirmed by accredited state labs using uniform procedures and standards.

Until these measures are in place, it is premature and illogical for 
Congress to strong-arm states to adopt this unnecessary and unsound "zero 
tolerance" drugged driving policy.

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The Editorial:

Pubdate: Tue, 20 Apr 2004
Source: Cincinnati Post (OH)
Copyright: 2004 The Cincinnati Post
Contact: postedits at cincypost.com
Website: http://www.cincypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/87

A NEW FRONTIER

U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, who has established himself as a national leader in 
the war on drugs, recently opened a new frontier. He and several others in 
the U.S. House introduced legislation aimed at boosting state enforcement 
of laws against drug impaired driving.

The broad goal of getting drug-impaired drivers off the road is obviously 
one that should command broad support. And this is a generally restrained 
push in that direction.

But there are legitimate objections to certain of the bill's assumptions -- 
and every reason in the world to suspect that what's being touted today as 
a carrot to help states will eventually turn into a stick used to punish 
those that don't climb onto the wagon.

Proponents of the bill cites statistics by the National Highway Traffic 
Safety Administration which suggest that illegal drugs (often in 
conjunction with alcohol) are used by between 10 percent and 22 percent of 
drivers involved in crashes. Portman says that nearly 11 million people 
drove under the influence of illegal drugs in 2002. And there is no 
shortage of horrific local examples about what can happen when motorists 
drive under the influence of marijuana, cocaine and alcohol.

In nine states, the mere presence of illegal drug residues in the body is 
regarded as evidence of drug-impaired driving, regardless of concentration 
or whether there's evidence the motorists ability to control a vehicle 
really was compromised. The bill acknowledges, however, that the technology 
for identifying illegal drugs in the body is inadequate, and authorizes 
federal grants to develop it.

The bill would also:

. Authorize grants to train police officers and prosecutors about drug 
impaired driving.

. Require the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to develop model legislation 
for use by states.

. Support research into impaired driving -- and the dissemination of 
results to judges, prosecutors, policymakers and others.

. Require annual reports to Congress on what states are doing about 
drug-impaired driving.

The bill proposes a modest boost in funding for such purposes, to $2 
million annually from the $1.2 million being spent now.

Some advocacy groups (see the guest column on the opposite page) complain 
the bill promotes a double standard by criminalizing trace amounts that can 
stay in the body for days after any incapacitating effect has worn off.

The bigger concern, we submit, is Washington's intention over the long haul.

State motor vehicle laws are not properly a federal issue. You don't see 
federal prosecutors handling drunken driving cases before federal judges, 
and Washington isn't picking up the cost to incarcerate or treat folks 
convicted of DUI. But that didn't stop Congress from threatening to 
withhold federal highway funds from states that refused to lower their DUI 
blood-alcohol levels to .08 percent. Nor has Washington seen fit to 
reimburse state and local governments for the costs of what was 
functionally a mandate.

There is every reason to expect the same pattern will eventually play out 
with drug-impaired driving. At a time when most states, for financial and 
policy reasons, have decided that drug abusers don't belong in prison, and 
when casual marijuana use has effectively been decriminalized, we might 
well see Congress turning the screws to get more people into the criminal 
justice system via driving laws -- and sticking state and local governments 
with the tab.

If the states want to put drunken and drug-impaired driving on equal 
footing -- genuinely equal footing -- fine. Punish behavior -- that is, 
those who drive while impaired -- and direct most resources at the 
alcoholics and addicts who are by far the greatest risk to the motoring 
public. But the federal role here ought to be quite limited. Besides, a 
government as hideously indebted as this one doesn't need to be looking for 
new spending agendas.

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ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please See:

Writer's Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

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Prepared by: Richard Lake, Focus Alert Specialist