# Question about marijuana testing after an auto accident. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808 "2006-06-07T21:37:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/41 "2006-06-08T18:08:57Z")
> [@bic910](#): > > Really? Does that only apply to accidents, or DUI’s in general? > > I’ve a friend in Illinois who was pulled over, and the cop accused him of being drunk (guilty as charged). I forget the specifics, but I don’t believe his license was suspended. As I recall, he didn’t bother submitting to any tests, just faced the consequences. And I don’t recall them being as harsh as a six month suspension. It’s for all suspicion of DUI. If you don’t submit, you are suspended for 6 mos. Happened to a friend of mine. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/42 "2006-06-08T18:12:40Z")
From [http://www.19thcircuitcourt.state.il.us/bkshelf/resource/il\_dui.htm#SUSPENDED%20DRIVING%20PRIVILEGES](http://www.19thcircuitcourt.state.il.us/bkshelf/resource/il_dui.htm#SUSPENDED%20DRIVING%20PRIVILEGES) : > [@](#): > > SUSPENDED DRIVING PRIVILEGES > > ``` > The State of Illinois has declared a policy that a driver who is impaired by alcohol and/or drugs is a threat to the public safety and welfare. In order to minimize the threat to public safety, the State of Illinois has deemed it appropriate to suspend an intoxicated drivers license. > **A statutory summary suspension means that driving privileges will be withdrawn for a specified period of time and then reinstated. This will be imposed if the blood alcohol content (BAC) of the driver is .08 or greater or if the driver refuses to submit to or fails a chemical testing.** A first offender will automatically receive a three (3) month suspension for a BAC of .08 or greater and an automatic six (6) month suspension for refusal to submit to chemical testing. > The officer will take the driver's license during the arrest and issue a temporary receipt to drive for 45 days. The statutory summary suspension begins on the 46th day after the arrest, and driving privileges are automatically suspended. > First-time DUI offenders may apply to the court for a judicial driving permit (JDP) which would allow them to drive during the suspension (only under certain conditions and when no other form of transportation is available). However, the person must provide the court with a current alcohol and drug evaluation and must prove that a hardship exists. > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/43 "2006-06-08T18:28:27Z")
> [@bic910](#): > > Really? Does that only apply to accidents, or DUI’s in general? > > I’ve a friend in Illinois who was pulled over, and the cop accused him of being drunk (guilty as charged). I forget the specifics, but I don’t believe his license was suspended. As I recall, he didn’t bother submitting to any tests, just faced the consequences. And I don’t recall them being as harsh as a six month suspension. If he didn’t submit to tests, he may have had the charge reduced to reckless driving. That’ll get you out of the suspension. ---
**Author:** ![bic910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@bic910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bic910)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/44 "2006-06-08T18:37:00Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > If he didn’t submit to tests, he may have had the charge reduced to reckless driving. That’ll get you out of the suspension. That must have been it. Sorry for the hijack. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/45 "2006-06-08T18:48:11Z")
The testing requirements for CDL holders is in the DOT/FMCSA web site, but it’s hard to navigate. Here’s an overview from another site: [http://www.hr.upenn.edu/policy/policies/717.asp](http://www.hr.upenn.edu/policy/policies/717.asp) There is often confusion about drivers who hold a CDL, but most cops will err on the side of caution. If you hold a CDL, be prepared to be treated more strictly than someone w/ a standard license. ---
**Author:** ![Smashed\_Ice\_Cream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Smashed\_Ice\_Cream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smashed_Ice_Cream)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/46 "2006-06-08T19:43:00Z")
I have two half-question, half-stories that I’d appreciate input on since I can’t figure the BS factor of either - sorry if it’s a hijack. #1. A few years ago, a friend of mine came home to discover his wife shooting heroin. (she’d been in a program, swore she was clean, etc.) Fight ensues, she leaves and drives off, and (coincidentally) ran her car into another friend of mine’s just a few blocks up the street. (No injuries, fortunately) The police test for alcohol, she’s clean, she refuses drug test, and is let off. I hear this story from the both her ex-husband, and the friend who was hit. I know she didn’t get in any trouble, no ticket, nothing. The accident was considered her fault, and went on her insurance, but I’m wondering why the police couldn’t compel her to take some sort of drug test. And if they had, what would she have been charged with? Are there laws similar to DWI, only for drugs, not alcohol. Story #2 - FOAF(OAF), so the details are definitely wrong, but the basic story is he was driving, a child on a bicycle hit/ran in front of him and was killed, (the accident was the bicyclist’s fault, this I know for sure), the driver did take a drug test - positive for cocaine, no alcohol, and the driver went to jail for some sort of negligence (?) - this is where I don’t know the details. My confusion lies in how accident 1 didn’t become a “crime”, when she was absolutely under the infulence of drugs, which caused the accident, and accident 2 was a serious-enough-for-jail crime, when the evidence shows that he had recently used coke. (According to friends, it had been a few days before). Plus, accident 2 wasn’t his actual fault, where accident 1 was. Any input is appreciated, speculation on what crime happened in #2, anything is appreciated. This has left me wondering for years. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/47 "2006-06-08T20:22:25Z")
> [@Smashed Ice Cream](#): > > I have two half-question, half-stories that I’d appreciate input on since I can’t figure the BS factor of either - sorry if it’s a hijack. > > #1. A few years ago, a friend of mine came home to discover his wife shooting heroin. (she’d been in a program, swore she was clean, etc.) Fight ensues, she leaves and drives off, and (coincidentally) ran her car into another friend of mine’s just a few blocks up the street. (No injuries, fortunately) The police test for alcohol, she’s clean, she refuses drug test, and is let off. I hear this story from the both her ex-husband, and the friend who was hit. I know she didn’t get in any trouble, no ticket, nothing. The accident was considered her fault, and went on her insurance, but I’m wondering why the police couldn’t compel her to take some sort of drug test. And if they had, what would she have been charged with? Are there laws similar to DWI, only for drugs, not alcohol. > > Story #2 - FOAF(OAF), so the details are definitely wrong, but the basic story is he was driving, a child on a bicycle hit/ran in front of him and was killed, (the accident was the bicyclist’s fault, this I know for sure), the driver did take a drug test - positive for cocaine, no alcohol, and the driver went to jail for some sort of negligence (?) - this is where I don’t know the details. > > My confusion lies in how accident 1 didn’t become a “crime”, when she was absolutely under the infulence of drugs, which caused the accident, and accident 2 was a serious-enough-for-jail crime, when the evidence shows that he had recently used coke. (According to friends, it had been a few days before). Plus, accident 2 wasn’t his actual fault, where accident 1 was. > > Any input is appreciated, speculation on what crime happened in #2, anything is appreciated. This has left me wondering for years. I could be wrong, but I think the deal is they cannot compel you to give up bodily fluids. She agreed to do a breathalyzer but not a blood test. Therefore, they have no proof that she was on drugs, regardless of what her husband saw. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/48 "2006-06-08T21:12:54Z")
> [@Don Logan](#): > > …I have always thought about, being a pothead and all, I have a Kafkaesque fear of being a wreck You mean your friend being a pothead and all. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Logan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Don\_Logan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Logan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/49 "2006-06-08T21:19:53Z")
Busted! I can’t believe anyone saw through my “friend” ruse 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/50 "2006-06-08T22:21:02Z")
> [@Smashed Ice Cream](#): > > I have two half-question, half-stories that I’d appreciate input on since I can’t figure the BS factor of either - sorry if it’s a hijack. > > #1. A few years ago, a friend of mine came home to discover his wife shooting heroin. (she’d been in a program, swore she was clean, etc.) Fight ensues, she leaves and drives off, and (coincidentally) ran her car into another friend of mine’s just a few blocks up the street. (No injuries, fortunately) The police test for alcohol, she’s clean, she refuses drug test, and is let off. I hear this story from the both her ex-husband, and the friend who was hit. I know she didn’t get in any trouble, no ticket, nothing. The accident was considered her fault, and went on her insurance, but I’m wondering why the police couldn’t compel her to take some sort of drug test. And if they had, what would she have been charged with? Are there laws similar to DWI, only for drugs, not alcohol. > > Story #2 - FOAF(OAF), so the details are definitely wrong, but the basic story is he was driving, a child on a bicycle hit/ran in front of him and was killed, (the accident was the bicyclist’s fault, this I know for sure), the driver did take a drug test - positive for cocaine, no alcohol, and the driver went to jail for some sort of negligence (?) - this is where I don’t know the details. > > My confusion lies in how accident 1 didn’t become a “crime”, when she was absolutely under the infulence of drugs, which caused the accident, and accident 2 was a serious-enough-for-jail crime, when the evidence shows that he had recently used coke. (According to friends, it had been a few days before). Plus, accident 2 wasn’t his actual fault, where accident 1 was. IANA Lawyer, Cop, DMV Employee, or anything similar, but here’s my take on the incident(s): #1: No injuries, only property damage. Not much of a crime there, not even much of a potential lawsuit. It also seems like the “friend” was unwilling to press charges further than reporting the accident to insurance. As for the cops, keep in mind they’ve got many other criminal cases to deal with; a fender-bender involving some drunk woman doesn’t strike me as something they’d worry too much about. #2: Well, a child was killed. Doesn’t matter what the real circumstances are – SOMEONE has to pay for that. Happens all the time. And since your FOAF had cocaine in his system…his goose was cooked. Even if he was clean, he would have faced some type of criminal negligence charge, or a wrongful death lawsuit. Remember, the system tends to go ballistic over dead children…even if the driver’s not at fault, they _will_ seek a way to make him at fault! ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/51 "2006-06-08T22:40:41Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Even if he was clean, he would have faced some type of criminal negligence charge, or a wrongful death lawsuit. Remember, the system tends to go ballistic over dead children…even if the driver’s not at fault, they _will_ seek a way to make him at fault! Not true at all. Accidents happen, children are killed and drivers not charged. It is not that rare at all, nor would you expect it to be. Kids do unpredictable and unfortunate things all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/52 "2006-06-09T03:33:23Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve been a pothead in the past and I know that even though the buzz wears off in a few hours, the stupid lingers for days or more. First I was going to call you uninformed. Now I’m just confused. Personally, I don’t experience any effects that last beyond maybe 4 hours. The exception is if you fall asleep high, so let’s just count 4 wakeful hours. Most of my friends don’t either. There was one who professed to still feel it the next day, or even the day after that. However, he was kind of a noob. Perhaps it is true for some individuals, but generally the stupid does not linger for days! In my experience, this could not be further from the truth. Actually, it probably has to do with how often you smoke. If you do it infrequently, the after-effects do last quite a bit longer. If you smoke regularly, you become much more tolerant to them and the after-effects go away much sooner (in addition to not being that strong in the first place). When I was starting out, I remember I’d be burnt-out for a considerable number of hours. I think that that last thing is the crucial point, and the reason why the seasoned potheads say one thing while the casual users say another. However, I doubt there exist any studies with careful enough data to examine this fact. And of course, you’ll never be able to convince a jury saying, “no, see, I am competent at driving 12 hours later because I smoke every day!” > [@](#): > > Have you ever known a pothead, I mean one who smoked every day? All the ones I’ve known appeared to be definitely learning impaired and not in full control of their faculties. That’s probably because they smoked many times a day, and were probably in the stage of being “burnt-out” when you hung out with them. That means they were just really tired, a little happy, and not really giving a shit if they didn’t seem respectable (and probably even found acting like that a little funny). Make your judgements only when you know they’re not actually high. It also happens that “learning-impaired” people are probably more likely to become potheads (for sociological reasons). However, intelligence doesn’t have too much to do with driving a bus anyway (i’m talking hypothetically here, don!). > [@](#): > > I don’t know if it is just my state, or lousy cops, or what, but my friend almost died in a car accident. Luckily she didn’t, but it was bad enough that she was in a coma for several months. Anyway, it was her boyfriend who was driving, and it was clearly his fault because he ran a stop sign. The boyfriend was constantly high on numerous illegal substances. The cops asked him if he would submit to a drug test after the accident and he said “no” and they said okay. And just ruled it as an accident. On top of that, my friend’s family (and me) begged the cops to do a drug test on him because we knew it would turn up positive and the cops basically told us, “sorry, he said no.” So, I don’t know what is up with that, but that was my experience. Oh, ok, that’s real fucking nice. Your friend gets into a car with her high boyfriend, agrees to take that chance. And then when something bad happens, she wants him to get fried by the law. What a bullshit American mentality. The victim in the other car has every reason to be angry. But not your friend! Not only could she have not gotten in the car, she had the tits to make her boyfriend not go anywhere either. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808/53 "2006-06-09T03:39:11Z")
Oh, no one seemed to have wanted to address the point of what was worse… driving drunk or driving high (on weed). I think that the biggest danger of driving drunk isn’t that your skills are impaired but that you feel really confident and drive fast and don’t feel like looking out for dangers. Ie, you become reckless. If you drive high, your skills are obviously impaired as well, but the crucial thing is that you become much more cautious than you would even be sober. That certainly offsets things a great deal. For example, this is the principle by which old ladies don’t kill everyone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-marijuana-testing-after-an-auto-accident/359808.md?page=2)