'SHOCKING' LOOPHOLE IN DWI LAW

If you get caught driving under the influence of marijuana,
methamphetamine or LSD, there is one thing you don't have to worry
about: having your license suspended a few days after you're busted.

The same is true if you are arrested for DWI but have a blood alcohol
content below 0.08.

Neither is subject to the administrative Motor Vehicles Division
license revocation process that occurs much more quickly than the
court process and is touted as an important tool in New Mexico's
battle against DWI.

Linda Atkinson, director of the DWI Resource Center, was unaware of
the "crack" in state law.

"It's shocking to me that we haven't addressed this," she said.
"Perhaps we just never looked at (state law) close enough."

Under New Mexico law, drivers arrested on a charge of drunken driving
with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or greater must go through the
MVD license revocation process. If they don't request a hearing within
20 days of the arrest, they lose their license for six months. If they
request a hearing, a hearing officer determines whether their license
is suspended and for how long.

If they are convicted, another six months is added to the
suspension.

In contrast, MVD can't suspend someone's license when they are
arrested for driving under the influence of drugs. Unlike driving
under the influence of alcohol, there is no presumptive level of
intoxication for drugs, so the state can't suspend someone's license
for being arrested. Instead, it must wait for a conviction, which can
take up to a year.

The state's hands are also tied when it comes to drivers who police
believe are under the influence of alcohol but test under 0.08, the
presumed level of intoxication. Officers can arrest those motorists if
they fail field sobriety tests, but those driver's licenses can't be
revoked until the motorist is convicted.

The state can, under its implied consent law, arrest and suspend the
license of anyone who refuses to blow into a breath analysis machine
if asked to do so by a police officer.

More than 2,800 motorists statewide were caught driving under the
influence of drugs last year.

"There are people we catch who I absolutely feel should not be
operating a motor vehicle and are allowed to," said Sgt. Angel Torres,
commander of the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department's DWI unit.
"They fly under the radar because a law doesn't exist. ... There is a
crack in the system that needs to be filled."

State officials say Gov. Bill Richardson plans to do something about
it when the Legislature meets in January. Rachel O'Connor, the
governor's DWI adviser, said Richardson intends to introduce a
"drugged driving" bill that would add a presumptive level or "legal
limit" for narcotics.

O'Connor said the governor's staff is in the process of studying laws
in other states.

"States are starting to see the problems with drugged driving,"
O'Connor said. "It is very difficult to determine what level of drugs
makes a person impaired."

Officers go through special training to become "drug recognition
experts." They are taught to look at drivers' vital signs. If there is
probable cause, the officer then requests a blood sample.

If a driver refuses the test, he or she is placed under arrest, and
the state can revoke the motorist's license within 20 days.

In 2007, law enforcement sent 2,818 blood samples from motorists
believed to be under the influence of drugs to the state's lab for
testing.

Of those samples, about 90 percent had alcohol in their blood but blew
under 0.08 percent. The rest only had drugs in their system.