CONGRESS CONSIDERS GOING AFTER 'DRUGGED DRIVERS'

WASHINGTON -- Citing estimates that 11 million people sometimes drive
under the influence of illegal drugs, a growing chorus in Congress
wants the government to do something about it.

The states are wary.

Illinois is one of eight states that have specific laws on "drugged
driving," but their statutes are vague. None specifies an equivalent
level to the 0.08 percent blood content that Congress established as
the legal level for alcohol impairment.

That's partly because there's no roadside test to detect the presence
of drugs in the body -- no handy "Breathalyzer" as there is for
alcohol. And even if blood or urine samples taken at a hospital test
positive for drugs, there's no standard for how high is too high to
drive.

In Illinois, a motorist's license can be suspended for failure to take
a drug test after a DUI arrest, or if any trace of cannabis or other
illegal drug is found in the motorist's blood.

The other eight states with "drugged driving" laws, according to the
American Prosecutors Research Institute, are Arizona, Georgia,
Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Utah.

"Zero tolerance" is the level some lawmakers want Congress to
establish. A motorist found to have any controlled substance in his or
her system would be considered unlawfully impaired.

"Everyone who drives is affected by this," said Rep. Rob Portman
(R-Ohio), citing a report last September by the Department of Health
and Human Services estimating that during the previous year nearly 11
million people drove at one time or another under the influence of
drugs. The same survey said three times as many people - 33.5 million
- - drove under the influence of alcohol in 2002.

Portman introduced a bill last week that would create a model
drug-impaired driving law for states to adopt to address what
proponents say is a monumental problem that has gone largely ignored.