Oakland, CA -- The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issued a new policy yesterday with regard to how it treats qualified medical marijuana patients. The DMV Driver Safety Procedure Manual was revised to include reference to medical marijuana, stating that "use of medicinal marijuana approved by a physician should be handled in the same manner as any other prescription medication which may affect safe driving." [Americans for Safe Access [8]]
The policy change stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Americans for Safe Access on behalf of a patient who lost her license despite decades of perfect driving. ASA notes that several counties in California have been designating patients as "drug abusers" solely due to their medical use of marijuana.
The mind-bending stupidity of all this is staggering when you consider the plethora of popular perfectly-legal pharmaceuticals that won't affect your driving privileges despite turning you into a slobbering zombie for 8 hours. Fortunately, the idiots who've been playing doctor/cop at California's DMV can look forward to a shiny new memo telling them to cut the crap.