DWI Other Than Alcohol

Modified Transcript of “DWI Other Than Alcohol” for the Hearing Impaired:

If you are behind the wheel, if something is negatively affecting your ability to operate a motor vehicle, that could make you liable for driving while impaired.

Chris McCartan discusses Impairment and DWI with substances other than alcohol in North Carolina.

See Related: DWI Search Warrant

Then when we get past the culture of alcohol and get past the culture of elicit drugs, and then understand that even prescription drugs can impair you, now we have even newer situations that we are forced to deal with not only as a society but also as defense attorneys, law enforcement officers, and prosecutors. That is the drugs that are not necessarily capable of being tested for but are ones that can impair you.

The classic one that people throw out constantly is bath salts, but there’s so many things that people take for one kind of high or another, that while it may not test for something traditional on a blood screen that goes through the state bureau of investigation, doesn’t change the fact that these are items that in your system could preclude you from properly driving a motor vehicle and could make you subject to a DUI prosecution.

The accused consumed a sufficient quantity of some impairing substance(s) as to appreciably impair that person’s physical or mental faculties or both, and that the person drove the above-described vehicle on the above-described highway or public vehicular area while under the influence of impairing substance(s).

See Related: NCGS 20-138.1 2015

Any time you’ll speak to somebody that will say “As long as it’s not alcohol or cocaine or marijuana you’re probably going to be okay,” don’t take their word for it. This is not a situation whereby anything can be excluded as an impairing substance.

If you are behind the wheel, if something is negatively affecting your ability to operate a motor vehicle, that could make you liability for driving while impaired.