DRUG-IMPAIRED DRIVING GAINS LA. ATTENTION

Study urges zero tolerance laws

Driving while on drugs -- a problem long overshadowed by its counterpart,
drunken driving -- is the target of mounting national attention that is
being closely monitored in Louisiana.

Federal health surveys show that each year more than 8 million Americans
drive within two hours of using marijuana or cocaine, but current law in
most states, including Louisiana, makes them difficult to prosecute, said
Michael Walsh, who was director of the President's Drug Advisory Council
under the first Bush administration. He was a leader in producing two
documents released in mid-November, an analysis of states' drugged-driving
laws and a consensus opinion on possible solutions from experts.

Only eight states have "zero tolerance" laws, which make it a criminal
offense to have a drug in your system while operating a motor vehicle, Walsh
said. The rest say either that drugs have to render a driver "incapable of
safely operating a vehicle" or that that the driver has to be "under the
influence" of drugs, as is the case in Louisiana.

The result is that across most of the country, a prosecutor bears the burden
of proving that a driver was impaired by drugs, while a good defense
attorney can counter that the motorist was just tired or that their driving
had been affected by a small accident, such as spilling coffee, he said.

Among the recommendations of Walsh, who operates a consulting firm in
Bethesda, Md., and the American Bar Association, which researched the issue
in collaboration with him, are that states should consider adopting zero
tolerance laws on drugged drivers and that they should mandate treatment for
offenders. Louisiana at least has stringent sanctions for people convicted
and also offers treatment options in exchange for a reduced sentence, Walsh
said.

The study received financing from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Walsh said another problem in the prosecution of drugged drivers is that new
technologies for quickly analyzing blood or urine samples are being
underutilized.

Tackling the problem

Walsh said he was pleased that federal officials on Tuesday launched a
campaign against drugged drivers, citing statistics from the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration that say that about 4,500 drivers
killed in crashes in 2000 had used drugs other than alcohol.

The program will include public service announcements warning motorists of
the dangers of driving while on drugs and financing to teach police officers
to identify such motorists.

John Young, an assistant district attorney in Jefferson Parish and the
chairman of Gov. Foster's vehicular homicide DWI task force, said that
drugged drivers are a growing problem in Louisiana, as is evident from the
cases crossing his desk.

The task force recommended revamping state law to make it closer to a zero
tolerance statute, only to see the proposal watered down by the Legislature
in 2001.

Not all was lost, however, Young said. The changes, which will take effect
next year, for the first time make it an offense if a driver is found to
have knowingly exceeded the recommended dosage of a drug or combined it with
alcohol in defiance of a warning label -- even if the drug is not on the
list of substances off-limits to drivers. Young said the changes will make
it possible to prosecute abuse of drugs such as carisoprodol, a popular
muscle relaxer sold under the brand name Soma.

Overworked, understaffed

Young said he would welcome new technology to address the problem, as well
as a quicker turnaround time when body fluid specimens from suspected
drugged drivers are sent from his parish to a State Police crime laboratory
in Baton Rouge.

But John Ricca, who directs the lab's analysis of drug use, said he doesn't
have enough employees to deal with samples from suspected drugged motorists
received from across the state. As a result, it can take five months to
complete a round of testing, he said.

His colleague, Sgt. Terry Chustz, who runs the State Police testing unit for
alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers, said that a program to train officers to
recognize drugged drivers is working well. His agency already has about 50
specialists and plans to train about 50 more by the middle of next year.

Baton Rouge resident Cathy Childers, director of the state Mothers Against
Drunk Driving, said that she would support a move to establish zero
tolerance for drugged drivers in Louisiana, although she doesn't expect the
Legislature to enact it yet. "Maybe when 20 other states have it," she said.

Tiffany Tate, a spokesperson for the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office,
backs zero tolerance. "We need laws to protect ourselves," she said.