NEW DRUGGED DRIVING LAW IN EFFECT IN WISCONSIN

MARINETTE -- "Busted. Over the limit. Under arrest." That's the latest
ad slogan for the State of Wisconsin's enforcement of drunk driving
laws.

The law is fairly simple, if you have a blood alcohol concentration
level (BAC) over 0.08, you will be arrested, but up until recently,
arrests for driving while under the influence of illegal drugs fell
into an hazy area.

While a person could be under the influence of an illegal drug, it was
a hard process to make a convincing legal argument that the drugs
impaired a person's ability to drive.

In December that changed. A new law, called Luke's Law, went into
effect Dec. 19 which basically states that if someone is caught
driving while under the influence of an illegal drug, they will be
charged just like a driver under the influence of alcohol.

While the law is similar to the state's already existing driving while
under the influence laws, Wisconsin State Patrol Lt. Tim Carnahan said
that it was necessary for the state to be more specific.

"Essentially what is says is that it is unlawful to drive a motor
vehicle if you have any detectable limit of a controlled substance in
your blood. The controlled substances are all the usual suspects;
marijuana, cocaine, opiates, methamphetamines. They are not talking
about legal medications, they are talking about illegal drugs," said
Carnahan. "If you've got it in your system, you've broken the law."

Before this law, driving while under the influence law stated that a
person could not drive a motor vehicle if they are impaired by alcohol
or other drugs. That's still the case.

"The problem for law enforcement is when you brought somebody in and
they were clearly impaired driving, but they didn't have any alcohol
and you had drugs," explained Carnahan. "They took them for a blood
test, and the blood test came back, for example it came back for
cocaine, and it said that you had such a level of cocaine in your
blood, you didn't have the corresponding blood alcohol levels."

With alcohol, in Wisconsin if a driver has a (BAC) of over 0.08, the
state only has to argue that they were above the legal level of
intoxication. With drugs, law enforcement and the courts didn't have
that, thus it created a legal hassle to convict people who were
impaired by other means than alcohol.

Such an incident happened in Milwaukee in 2001. The new law, is also
known as the Baby Luke bill, after a victim in the incident.

Michelle Logemann of Waukesha was approximately eight months pregnant
when her vehicle was hit by a van that ran a red light in Milwaukee on
Dec. 11 of that year. She was seriously injured.

Soon after the crash, Logemann's baby, named Luke, was delivered by
Caesarian section but died a few hours later of head injuries.

Prosecutors demonstrated that the driver of the van, Paul D. Wilson,
had ingested cocaine, but they couldn't prove actual impairment.

Wilson eventually pleaded no contest to a charge of a homicide by
negligent use of a motor vehicle and received a maximum two-year sentence.

If he had been convicted of being impaired by alcohol at the time of
the fatal crash, he could have received a maximum 40-year sentence.

The new law makes penalties for drugged driving as severe as those for
drunk driving, with a first offense resulting in a hefty fine, an
alcohol and other drugs assessment, loss of driving privileges, and
possible jail time.

Motorists who exhibit behavior or symptoms indicative of drug use will
have to submit to a blood test that determines the presence of
controlled substances.

Refusing to take the blood test for illegal drugs is treated the same
as refusing to take the test to detect alcohol levels -- automatic
revocation of the driver's license.

That doesn't mean that law enforcement officers can pull someone over
and force them to submit to a drug test. As with all alcohol stops, an
officer has to have reasonable suspicion before requesting a test.

"Is law enforcement going to be stopping people and randomly sticking
needles in people's arms to see if they have any drugs in their
system? The answer to that is absolutely not," he said. "In order to
stop somebody while driving a car, you have to have reasonable
suspicion that they have broken some law. Then you have to make a
determination based on probable cause that this law has been violated."