Mass. SJC Says Police Can Make Drugged Driving Arrest Based on Observations

By | January 17, 2019

  • January 17, 2019 at 1:38 pm
    Underwriter says:
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    The type of driving (aggressive) sounds more like cocaine than marijuana!

    • January 18, 2019 at 11:13 am
      Agent says:
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      Marijuana is a gateway drug which leads to Meth, Cocaine and Opioid abuse.

      • January 18, 2019 at 1:23 pm
        Captain Planet says:
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        Really? Prove it!

        Fact – roughly 80% of NBA players smoke weed. Fact – we don’t see those same players with meth, cocaine, and opioid addictions.

        Fact – Many drug abusers start off with those substances Agent mentioned without ever having touched MJ.

        • January 21, 2019 at 7:01 am
          PolarBeaRepeal says:
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          NBA players have drivers and limos. NBA players is NOT an adequate, unbiased sample of all people. Try harder to prove your claim.

          • January 21, 2019 at 9:12 am
            Captain Planet says:
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            Try to stay with me here – I am showing evidence that Agent’s gateway theory can be proven false by using the NBA as an example. Where are all the meth and coke heads in the NBA? Those drugs produce completely different highs – not anywhere close to being related.

        • January 21, 2019 at 7:02 am
          PolarBeaRepeal says:
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          FACT – you claim things are FACTS which really aren’t.

        • January 21, 2019 at 2:10 pm
          Craig Cornell says:
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          You are just so logically impaired. Truly.

          The fact that many people do NOT move on to higher drugs does not mean pot or anything else is NOT a gateway drug. Those people have nothing to do with the “gateway” by definition; they never became addicted to other drugs at all.

          The test, the ONLY test, is how the people who DO move on to harder drugs got there. And in that case, over 90% of all cocaine and meth. addicts started with pot. Hence, a “gateway”. If over 90% of coke and meth addicts did NOT start with pot, then it would not be a gateway. (Talk to rehab. experts, then pop off.)

        • January 21, 2019 at 3:47 pm
          Craig Cornell says:
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          “Alcohol is not a gateway to higher rates of domestic violence, because the vast majority of people who drink alcohol never commit domestic violence.”

    • January 21, 2019 at 3:58 pm
      Perplexed says:
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      Underwriter you haven’t been around many marijuana dope heads have you? Believe me, it does make some people aggressive and violent. You should do yourself a favor and read the book by Alex Berenson (a liberal), Tell Your Children: The Truth about Marijuana, Mental illness and violence.

  • January 17, 2019 at 3:37 pm
    Mark Ambrose says:
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    I was high and operating a motor vehicle but you violated the law when you’re trying to prove it.

  • January 18, 2019 at 9:25 am
    Fair Playing Field says:
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    He’s certainly guilty of driving like an a******, and that alone should be probable cause for the officer to arrest him, impound the vehicle and search for anything that might have contributed to his behavior or otherwise posed a danger to the public.

    I agree with Underwriter on his aggressive driving/cocaine remark and would expect the passengers’ “sleepiness” was due to the oxycodone. The weed certainly contributed, and the observation of it alone substantiated probable cause. Glad to see the court uphold that.

    Too many people fail to treat driving as the privilege that it is, and have too little regard for others.

  • January 22, 2019 at 10:29 am
    Rosenblatt says:
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    Sounds like the officer did everything right and the SJ came to the proper decision. Until there’s an accurate test for marijuana impairment akin to a breathalizer, the only thing officers can do is determine if there’s probable cause for a search/DUI based on physical actions of the driver (while driving and after they’re pulled over). And officers are trained accordingly based on what I found:

    “There is no equivalent of a breathalyzer for marijuana,” Matt Allen, the field director for the ACLU Massachusetts, told Boston.com. “Without such a test, the best way to measure if someone should not be driving due to recent marijuana use may be a roadside impairment examination that tests reflexes, balance, and cognition.”

    Massachusetts has two special training courses for police officers for identifying drug-impaired drivers. The first is a two-day course called Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement, or ARIDE, which Carmichael says they’re hoping to ramp up as dispensaries begin opening. The second is a two-week Drug Recognition Expert program, in which officers are certified in the ability to field-test for drug-impaired drivers (and differentiate them from people with “medical and/or mental disorders”).”



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