Monthly Archives: November 2012

“Avoid the 30” Program Acquires Large DUI Grant in Riverside County

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Riverside received a grant to pay for additional DUI patrols; the $385,000 DUI grant came from the state Office of Traffic Safety. The grant will fund more checkpoints and extra patrols to find drivers who are DUI. The grant was received by the “Avoid the 30” program, which refers to the 30 law enforcement agencies in Riverside County. According to the “Avoid the 30” website, there have been 1,030 arrests this year due to additional police patrols on holidays such as Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

The grant money will be used to pay for overtime and other miscellaneous expenses. With this, law enforcement will be able to set up 13 checkpoints and 118 saturation patrols through till September 2013. There will also be self-funded checkpoints and patrols set up by law enforcement agencies.

Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz commented on the program at a news conference and said, “The main message is if you decided to become intoxicated and get behind the wheel, your chances of getting caught are very good.”

All DUI saturation points are in addition to the regular patrol and traffic enforcement operating in Riverside County.

Hundreds of Marijuana Cases Dismissed in Light of I-502

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King and Pierce County prosecutors are going to dismiss more than 220 misdemeanor marijuana cases after the passing of Initiative 502, which decriminalizes small amounts of marijuana.

King County, whose largest city is Seattle, has 175 case dismissals of people 21 and older who were charged with possession of one ounce or less of marijuana. I-502 does not begin until December 6th but Dan Satterberg, King County Prosecutor, has moved to retroactively apply the initiative. Satterberg said in a press release, “Although the effective date of I-502 is not until December 6, there is no point in continuing to seek criminal penalties for conduct that will be legal next month.”

Not long after, the King County Sheriff’s Office announced that their deputies “will not be directed to arrest or charge individuals caught with one ounce of less of marijuana following the passage of I-502.”

A group of academics found that in the past 25 years, there had been 241,000 misdemeanor marijuana possession cases in Washington, and 67,000 of them had been in past five years. Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said that when he took office, he stopped prosecuting simple possession marijuana cases altogether.

The Justice Department has not commented on the passing of I-502. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law, and some are worried that Washington state may be sued over legalization.

Driving Under the Influence of Marijuana in Washington (DUID)

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Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize recreational use of marijuana for adults over 21 this November, and Washington state will now enforce a DUID (driving under the influence of drugs) provision which determines when a person can be charged with driving under the influence of marijuana.

The Washington State Liquor Control Board will decide which establishments may grow, process, and distribute marijuana. Citizens have not been given the right to do home growing. At each level of marijuana manufacturing, from grower to processor, processor to retailer, and retailer to consumer, there will be a 25% tax. This is projected to potentially produce $500 million per annum for the state.

Marijuana’s principal psychoactive constituent (the chemical substance that crosses the blood-brain barrier and acts on the central nervous system) is tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. This is the chemical that stays in the blood stream even after the effects of cannabis have worn off. THC can stay in the bloodstream for days after ingestion.

The potential for DUID under the new law has become a hot topic in the Initiative 502 discussion. Lawmakers are hoping to hash out the particulars of the laws for the initiative by December 6th of this year, but it may take up to one year to work out who will be legally allowed to sell cannabis.

Everyone, from marijuana users to law enforcement, has concerns about the new DUID law. Message boards about I-502 are warning marijuana users of the potential for a DUI marijuana in Washington, and an interview with law enforcement officers in Clallam County reveals that some are confused about how to enforce DUID.

This week, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg dismissed ALL pending misdemeanor marijuana cases.

Living Closer to Bars May Increase Odds of Becoming a Heavy Drinker

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Reuters reported on a Finnish study which found that living in closer proximity to a bar may increase the likelihood of becoming a heavy drinker and engaging in risky alcohol behavior. The study followed 54,778 Finnish adults over seven years, and found that a person who moved one kilometer (0.6 mile) closer to a bar had a greater odd of becoming a heavy drinker by 17%. A heavy drinker is defined as drinking more than 10 ounces a week of distilled alcohol for a man, and drinking more than seven ounces of distilled alcohol a week for a woman.

Professor Jussi Vahtera of Turku University reports that the alcohol-induced mortality rate of men and women living alone rose steeply after the decrease in the price of alcohol in 2004. In the last two decades, the number of alcohol-related diseases and alcohol poisoning have doubled among the Finnish working-age population.

The study took place between 2000-2009, and included responses from 78,000 people who responded to at least one survey, and 54,778 responses from people who responded to at least two surveys.

According to the cross-sectional findings, the likelihood of an extreme drinking occasion (one that results in a pass out from alcohol use) and heavy use was higher among those that resided less than a kilometer away from a bar verses those who lived more than a kilometer away from a bar.

Lead researcher Jaana L. Halonen, of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Kuopio, responded in an email, “Factors other than proximity are also likely to explain the observed association.” She noted that one possibility could be that drinkers choose to live closer to bars. The study also looked at a subset of people who did not move, but bars came closer to them, and found that the findings were similar among those individuals, too.

Of the people who lived an average of 0.12 kilometers from a bar, just over 9% of those individuals were categorized as being a heavy drinker. Those who lived about 2.4 kilometers, or 1.5 miles, away from a bar, about 7.5% of those people were considered a heavy drinker.

While the association was modest, Holonen commented that even a modest association between access to bars and being a heavy drinker is “notable.”

For any one person, Halonen said, the risk of becoming a problem drinker depends on a whole range of factors. She added that, it is possible restricting bars’ hours could limit the local people’s risky drinking.

The study conducted entirely in Finland many not account for how the findings would apply to other countries, as Halonen said, drinking habits and the “cultural norms” will vary by country. For instance, she notes that, “in the UK and Australia, heavy drinking is reported to be more common than in Finland, whereas in the USA it is less common.”

In the USA, the prevalence of binge drinking is about 17.1%, according to analyzed data collected in 2010 by the Center for Disease Control.

86% of DUI Cases Acquitted by Judges in Worcestor County

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The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts’ highest court has been urged by a special counsel to toughen laws and courtroom policy after a report was revealed that 97% of DUI bench trials ended in acquittal in one county. The study was commissioned by the Supreme Judicial Court last year after a Globe Spotlight series found that a significant number of people charged with DUI do not have traditional trials by jury but instead go before a judge, and 4 out of 5 who go to bench are acquitted. The high number of acquittals is 11 percentage points higher in Worcester County than in the rest of the state, and the issue with having a near 100 percent acquittal rate is that it creates an appearance of leniency, according to the study. The recommendations by the study included requiring defendants to choose a bench trial earlier in the process to avoid “judge shopping.”

Defendants are allegedly waiving their right to a jury trial on the day of when a judge with a reputation for leniency appears on the bench. The Supreme Judicial Court chose Jack Cinquegrana, a former federal and state prosecutor, as special counsel on the issue. He produced a 148-page report which included other recommendations such as requiring district court judges to rotate through courts more often. It was also recommended that judges receive better training on how to handle scientific evidence.

The study points out that lawmakers may want to close a loophole that helps defendants evade conviction even with evidence that they had a blood alcohol level above the legal .08% limit. Defendants are allegedly arguing that while their BAC may have been .08% at the time of the test, that it was lower when they were actually driving because the alcohol in their system had not yet metabolized.

In drunk driving cases that go to trial, Jack Cinquegrana found that juries acquit 58% of the time, but judges will find defendants not guilty 86% of time. Cinquegrana reviewed 57,000 OUI (DUI) cases, and interviewed lawyers and judges for the study.

Alabama DUI & Actual Physical Control Laws

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Al.com reports that a woman dressed as a zombie was arrested for DUI in Alabama when she was found asleep in her car. On the morning of November 1st, Birmingham police responded to a call that an unresponsive woman in a car was allegedly shot. Police arrived and found the victim in question was actually an intoxicated woman still dressed in her Halloween costume. The costume was ‘pregnant-zombie’, and the woman had fake blood covering the front of her body.

Police arrested the woman for DUI. Alabama’s DUI law states that a person shall not drive or be in actual physical control of any vehicle while their BAC is at or above .08%, and the definition of actual physical control is defined by judicial decision.

In 1980, Alabama DUI law changed dramatically. The term “intoxication” was taken out, removing the burden from law enforcement to substantially prove intoxication of a driver. Before 1980, the legal term for drunk driving was driving while intoxicated, and the law changes replaced DWI with driving under the influence, or DUI. This change made it easier for prosecutors to argue that a person could be under the influence of alcohol without showing signs of intoxication. Under Alabama law, a vehicle does not have to be in a state of operation but it must be capable to some degree of operation. For instance, in 1999, Nicholas Mester was arrested for DUI for steering an inoperable vehicle which was being moved along by another vehicle.

A motorist who is asleep behind the wheel and is in possession of keys can be charged with DUI in Alabama. If a person is physically capable of starting the engine or causing the vehicle to move, then direct evidence such as a law enforcement officer observing swerving or movement of the vehicle is not always needed for a drunk driving conviction.