UNDER THE INFLUENCE, BUT NOT IMPAIRED

Another Potential Absurdity Under 'Porter's Law'

A new police report shows off-duty Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. Edward
Lattin had more marijuana in his system than state law permits when
he triggered a three-car crash that left one person dead last month.

Lattin, 46, who supervises a team that investigates fatal crashes,
volunteered to undergo a blood test at the scene of the crash and as
a result was arrested Tuesday on one felony count of drug-related
driving under the influence resulting in death. He remained in the
Clark County Detention Center Wednesday night with bail set at $50,000.

The June 11 accident near Rainbow Boulevard and Hacienda Avenue
claimed the life of 49-year-old Ying Warren.

Comparisons to the case of stripper Jessica Williams, who fell asleep
at the wheel in March 2000, mowing down and killing six teenagers
sentenced for minor infractions to pick up trash in the median of
Interstate 15, are unavoidable.

Williams, who used Ecstacy 10 hours before the crash and smoked
marijuana two hours before the accident, is serving 18 to 48 years in
prison for driving with prohibited substances in her blood, even
though her jury determined she was not impaired at the time of the crash.

The county authorities who allowed those teens to be placed in
jeopardy along that highway faced no punishment whatever. Taxpayers
covered their liabilities.

Lattin had two to five times the legally permitted amounts of THC in
his system at the time of the more recent crash, depending on how the
active agent from marijuana is measured. "All we can say is that he
was under the influence, but it doesn't mean he was impaired," says
Metropolitan Police Department Deputy Chief for the Special
Operations Division Joe Lombardo.

Lattin, who was not arrested at the site of his crash, remains on
paid administrative leave.

Robert Langford, a local defense attorney who represents those
charged with marijuana offenses, speculates Lattin would probably not
have volunteered for a blood test if he had recently ingested pot --
the highway patrolman may not have realized tests can show drug
residue from use up to 30 days in the past.

Will Lattin now get kid glove treatment, compared to what befell
Jessica Williams -- who was certainly not sent home from the crash
site to await developments? The sergeant's bail has already been set
at a quite manageable $50,000 -- while Wiliams' was set at $5 million.

If the sergeant is indeed found culpable and faces some punishment of
less than 18 years in prison, Jessica Williams' punishment should be
commuted to match the highway patrolman's.

Or do we have different standards of justice in Nevada for cops than
we do for strippers?

The law that sent Jessica Williams away even though she was found not
to be impaired -- known as "Porter's law" because it was sponsored by
then-state senator, now U.S. Rep. Jon Porter -- is absurd, says Neal
Levine, who managed the 2006 initiative campaign to legalize medical
marijuana in Nevada.

"The current Nevada law sends people to prison for a crime they
didn't actually commit, which is vehicular homicide," he says.

Mr. Levine is correct. Of course no one who causes a death through
negligence or misbehavior should walk away without paying some
penalty. But that penalty should be proportional to the misbehavior.
Enhanced penalties for driving while impaired make sense, but should
be limited to what might reasonably be expected to lead an impaired
driver to say, "Whoa, I can barely walk -- call me a cab."

Filling our prisons with drivers who consumed some regulated
substance in the past, but who cannot be proven impaired at the time
of their accident, is to extend the already counterproductive "War on
Drugs" to the point of insanity.

Yes, punish them for causing accidental deaths, if they're found
culpable. But only for that -- their actual crime.

Extra, vindictive punishment for Lattin because he may have consumed
a cannabis product at some time in the past month is wrong. Hideously
wrong, no matter what his line of work.

Just as wrong as it was for Ms. Williams.