Drugs and driving — Colorado Permit Test

Driving while impaired by drugs, including illicit drugs, marijuana, prescription medications and over the counter medications, is illegal and carries the same penalties as driving impaired by alcohol.

A drug from a pharmacy shelf can slow you down as much as a drink. The law looks at how you are driving, not at where the drug came from.

Driving while impaired by drugs, including illicit drugs, marijuana, prescription medications

Using marijuana or another drug for medicinal purposes is not a defense for DUI or DWAI.

A prescription says the drug is allowed, not that you are fit to drive on it. The test is whether you were impaired.

The fact that marijuana or other drugs were used for medicinal purposes is not a defense for DUI or DWAI

Prescription drugs such as tranquilizers and pain killers, and over-the-counter medications for allergies and colds, can impair safe driving skills.

A cold remedy is built to make you drowsy enough to rest. That is exactly the wrong state for the next hour on a highway.

Prescription drugs, such as tranquilizers, pain killers and over-the-counter medications for allergies and colds can impair safe driving skills

Drivers must check medication labels for warnings about a medication’s effects before driving, and ask a doctor or pharmacist where the label is missing or unclear.

The warning is printed on the box for exactly this decision. Reading it takes a moment and tells you whether tonight is a night to drive.

Drivers must check medication labels for warnings about the medication’s effects before driving

There is a permissible inference that a driver was DUI if their blood contained 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood, and there is no THC permissible inference level for DWAI.

The figure lets a court start from impairment rather than prove it from scratch. It is an inference, though, and not a line like the alcohol limit.

There is a permissible inference that a driver was DUI if the driver’s blood contained 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter (ng/ml) of blood

Unlike alcohol, there is no correlation between the level of THC in blood, breath or saliva and the degree of a person impairment.

With drink, a number tells you roughly where someone is. With marijuana it does not, so how the person was driving becomes the whole of the evidence.

Unlike with alcohol, there is no correlation between levels of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in the blood, breath or oral fluid (or saliva sample) and the degree of individual impairment

Most marijuana impaired drivers are convicted on behavioral symptoms as well as blood THC levels.

Because the blood level proves so little, what the officer saw carries the case. The driving is the evidence again.

Most marijuana impaired drivers are convicted based upon behavioral symptoms, as well as blood THC levels

Polydrug impairment is caused by using two or more drugs at the same time, and mixing drugs can increase their effects.

Two half doses are not half a problem each. Together they can do more than either would have done alone.

Polydrug impairment is caused by using two or more drugs simultaneously, including using alcohol, marijuana, prescription medications, over-the-counter medications or any other drugs in any combination

Colorado’s data shows polydrug impairment is more common than impairment by any single drug other than alcohol, and also more dangerous.

It is the ordinary case rather than the exotic one, which is why the handbook spends a paragraph on it at all.

Colorado’s data shows that polydrug impairment is more common than impairment by any single drug other than alcohol

Illegal drugs such as LSD, methamphetamine and heroin can give a false sense of alertness and self confidence or make a driver drowsy and unable to react.

Feeling sharp is not being sharp. A driver who believes they are at their best is the one least likely to slow down.

These drugs can give a false sense of alertness and self confidence or make you drowsy and unable to react to simple situations

Drivers are routinely convicted under Colorado impaired driving laws regardless of which drug caused the impairment and regardless of the level found in blood or saliva.

There is no drug the law has overlooked and no level that is automatically safe. Impairment is the offense, whatever produced it.

Drivers are routinely convicted of Colorado’s impaired driving laws regardless of the drug or drugs causing the impairment and regardless of the level of any drug that may be found in the blood or saliva

How are drug impaired driving penalties set in Colorado?

The same as for driving impaired by alcohol. A drug from a pharmacy shelf can slow you down as much as a drink. The law looks at how you are driving, not at where the drug came from. Colorado Driver Handbook, p.4: “Driving while impaired by drugs, including illicit drugs, marijuana, prescription medications”