The Arizona Supreme Court decided on Friday that cardholders for medical marijuana are not infallible from charges due to a DUI law that does not allow for drivers to have any amount of marijuana in the body or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
However, Arizona’s high court’s ruling on Friday also stated that cardholders can try to prove in court that they did not have enough THC in their system to actually be high. A lawyer who filed a brief for a defense attorneys group stated that the ruling was welcome because it contradicts a lower court’s ruling that cardholders could be incarcerated just for driving and using marijuana.
“Now at least they can drive,” David Euchner, an assistant Pima County public defender, said.
Arizona is among 23 states that allow medical marijuana use. States are wrangling with a host of legal issues stemming from implementation of medical marijuana programs. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that medical marijuana users aren’t automatically breaking the law if they drive after using the drug and that police must show a driver was actually “under the influence” of marijuana to seek criminal charges.
The Arizona case ruled Friday had to do with a state DUI law that puts away any sight of marijuana or THC. A different DUI law, which was separate from this, does not allow for drivers to drive while under the influence.
It will take time to decided how these new rules are going to be observed, but it probably means attorneys will argue to jurors “like they do when drivers are charged under the impairment law,” said John Tatz, an appellate lawyer for two defendants in the case.
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