ZERO-TOLERANCE URGED FOR DRIVERS ON ILLEGAL DRUGS

Panel Wants States to Adopt Laws like Utah's

WASHINGTON -- Substance abuse experts called Thursday for more states to
adopt laws like one in Utah that give "zero tolerance" for drivers who take
any illegal drugs.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Substance Abuse Policy Research
Program said only eight states, including Utah, now outlaw driving while
having any illegal drug in the body.

The other 42 states have laws that outlaw driving while impaired by drugs
but set no definitions on exactly when impairment occurs. In contrast, most
states say drivers are legally drunk when they have a 0.08 percent
blood-alcohol concentration.

Jerry Landau, a county attorney in Phoenix and a member of a panel of
experts for the research program, said such laws "make it extremely
difficult for the prosecutor to prove that impairment of the driver was
directly related to the drug ingested."

He added, "The zero-tolerance or per se laws, which are found in eight
states (Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island
and Utah) simply make it a criminal offense to operate a vehicle while
having a drug or a drug metabolite in one's body or bodily fluids."

The experts said passing laws such as Utah's is important because 9 million
Americans said they had driven a car in the past year within two hours of
using marijuana or cocaine, according to the federal government's National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

Michael Walsh, who led the panel of experts, said, "Driving under the
influence of drugs, other than alcohol, has become a significant problem,
but drugged drivers are not detected as often as drunk drivers."

He added, "There is a lack of uniformity in the way state laws approach
drugged driving, there are no national standards for testing drugged
drivers and too few police officers are trained to detect drivers who may
be under the influence of drugs."

The experts said the same level of drugs in the system impairs drivers
differently, depending on the dose, the way the drug was ingested,
frequency of use and the metabolism of the user, which makes drugged
driving charges difficult to prove without "zero tolerance" laws.

Because of that, expert Linda Chezem, a judge from Indiana, said, "If we
cannot identify the drugged driver, it is difficult for a judge or for a
prosecutor to require that the driver go to substance abuse treatment,
either voluntarily or through a court order."