Michigan Bill Would Allow Roadside Drug Tests

They are so unreliable. False positives and negatives and they track THC for up to 2 days right? So how is this useful vs. a "walk the line" test? Just another way to create criminals out of good citizens.

Seems to me this jackass, Rick Jones, needs to enforce more alcohol related drivers before trying to arrest legal medical marijuana patients! Marijuana users are more alert and aware of their surroundings than someone who has had a few beers. This is just our state being hypocritical about a law WE THE PEOPLE passed. 

Have a root canal on a tooth and your dentist gives you a scrip for a couple vicodens.   Two days later, you forget to turn on your left turn signal and get drug tested and turn up positive.  

Have Chemo on friday, and use some cannabis on friday night and saturday, but drive to the convience store sunday morning to get some milk and your friendly officer notices a brake light is out and tests you, which you turn up positive for.

Neither driver would have been "impaired".   Big brother seems to only be getting bigger.  Your hair is too long, your wearing dark sunglasses, your wobbly from the chemo...  all great reasons to use a new tool to arrest people. 

Cold medications, lack of sleep, mental/emotional issues, and an unlimited supply of other reasons can impair a drivers ability.   Next thing you know, you'll be arrested for driving without getting the mandatory minimum of 5.9 hours of sleep in a twenty-four hour period.

Common sense is not a common trait when it comes to our politicians and drug laws.

So now all medical marijuana users are going to fail initial test and become tested for additional narcotics.  It's funny how this law only seemed to surface the same time as medical marijuana....hmmmmmm

Sounds like Jones is begging to lose his job. Campaign money from the prison-industrial complex is slowly drying up. I wonder what his relationship is with the company that makes the test kits.

Personally, I think the "walk the line" test should be adequate for any driver, no matter why they are "impaired". Although, that might defeat the purpose, since very few people would fail it after smoking a little weed.

If you vote Republican you support Corporate Fascism or a Pro-Nazi Government. Republicans seem to want more and more regulations and laws and less freedom. Why is that?

The first post says the tests would track uses in the previous 2 days. Now although that would give you a positive test if you weren't "freshly high" the fact of the matter is driving with any amount of marijuana in your system is considered as driving under then influence of drugs. i.e. If you smoke and marijuana is in your system for a month after you smoke you can not legally drive for the following month legally in the state of Michigan. As for a false positive, if you are found falsely positive all that does is give them problem cause to arrest you and do a "real" drug test, not just a preliminary drug test, where you would be let go afterward because you didn't have anything in your system.

Now chemo/root canal guy. If someone is given Rx drugs and is given the preliminary drug test but also can prove the have a Rx for what they test positive they would not have any charges filled against them. But, some drugs like vicodin say do not drive if under the influence of this drug in which case you would get the DUI. Or in this case medical marijuana, unless you have a special circumstance on your license you cannot drive after using medical marijuana period.

Hope that resolves some questions you guys have an if you have anymore feel free to post and ill try to get back to you.

Sorry Larry, I disagree with your thoughts, even if it is the law.  First off, the intent of the laws are to prevent drivers from driving under the influence of substances that have a negative affect on your ability to operate a motor vehicle. That should mean you have to have a level of the substance that causes intoxication, not just any amount.   If the marijuana test is a test for metabolites instead of for a quantity of THC that would cause intoxication, the test is bunk, period, and should not stand up in court.  This is the problem with metabolite tests and why they violate individuals rights.  It is no different than getting fired for having marijuana metabolites in your employment drug test after using legal hemp oil to cook with.  You were never intoxicated, and you were never tested for being intoxicated. Bunk again

If I were a resident of Michigan, I would look up this bill, find out who is listed as the opposition, and write that person or better yet take the time to personally meet with him/her and make them aware of this issue.

If the roadside test actually does test for a level of THC that actually causes intoxication, then I am sorry folks,  I don't want you on the road.  There is nothing you can say to me that gives you the right to risk another persons right to live just because you falsely believe you can operate a motor vehicle fine while under the influence in an amount that causes impairment.

But on the other side of the coin, if you are not intoxicated but have residual in your body, then there is no driving while impaired which was the original intent of those laws, and those laws need to be changed to address this issue.

As far as the Dem Rep thing, it was the Dems who opposed freeing the slaves, and yet most African Americans vote for Dems?  It was the Dems who jailed and tortured the women of suffrage eighty years ago, and most women vote for Dems? The Democratic party was started by rich southern plantation owners, and their money and descendants still control that party today.  They just make the poor people in this country today slaves to government handouts instead.  They are still slaves who only vote for their free checks.  It is the Dems who are breaking the bank by run away spending.  Quit slamming Bush for doing what he needed to do to stop terrorist attacks in America you fools, it worked.  How many American citizens have you heard about who's rights were personally violated by the Bush administration with the changes he made to keep us safe?  I've have never heard of one person saying they were wrongly watched or followed.  Get real and get off your brainwashed hype that the Dems are good and the Reps are bad.  There are bad apples in both parties. Quit believing all the crap the controlled mass media and biased liberal colleges teach.  Read up on the true political history of America before you tell me Republicans don't support constitutional freedoms and smaller government. The biggest problem with American politics is a politician has to swear loyalty to the party platform instead of representing the majority of their constituents first, which is the way it should be and we have no term limits.  It was the present Commander who wanted to ban Fox news from the press core just because they espouse a view he doesn't agree with.  Who is trying to control who here?  Open your eyes and quit being brainwashed.  It was a Democratic president who gave China free trade staus and gave away all our American blue collar jobs, and yet the unions support Dems?

Yet another way for politicians to get their hands in our pockets.  Sounds down right illegal to me.  They should take this guy out and do a little vigilante style justice on him.  Must be nice to propose laws that he himself will never be subjected to.  Hopefully one of these proposals makes a FELON out of one of his kin.  Jackass.
 

In 2006, Michigan's Supreme Court ruled that metabolites in the body constituted drugged driving.  In 2010, the same court ruled that the 2006 ruling was a mistake.  This guy is just posturing for political gain on the backs of patients.  His ideas are dead on arrival.  As for the med marijuana law, it is going to take 3/4 of each house to change the law.  Good luck getting all those people to vote to undo a measure that not only passed by 63% but also passed in ever single district.  The situation here is a little tense around this law.  The recent police raids are an unstoppable force looking to move an unmovable object to change the law by arresting as many patients as possible.  People like this guy are not helping anyone.

Here is a link to the court ruling: http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/11/michigan-supreme-says-drugged

Multiple studies including one with actual street driving in Amsterdam have determined that the maximum impairment while driving stoned is on par with that caused by a blood alcohol content of 0.05%, a level which is below the DWI threshold in every state in the USA.  There have also been multiple studies which have found that people who consumed marijuana in the previous several hours were less likely than straight people to end up in an emergency room.  They expected, as with alcohol, that marijuana use would correlate with higher emergency admissions, likely in a dose-dependent manner.  What the data told them was the exact opposite.  The more pot someone smoked, the less likely they were to require emergency care.  This was for ALL reasons - including traffic accidents. 

This is just another excuse for the state to play authoritarian master.  If Rick Jones is serious about wanting to increase the safety of driving in the state of Michigan then his time would be better spent focusing on alcohol related problems.

Meanwhile the infrastructure continues to rot, and the state continues to hemorrhage jobs..