Can You Get Arrested For Driving High?

 Posted on July 24, 2020 in DWI

Absolutely. In Texas you can be charged with driving while intoxicated either by alcohol, drugs or pain medications prescribed to you by a doctor or a dentist. Now most people know that in Texas the legal limit for alcohol in your system is 0.08. What we don't know is that there's not really an equivalency for how much THC or other drugs you can have in your system before you're deemed to be intoxicated.

How can the state prove that I was high while driving?

So just because Texas doesn't have a legal limit, certainly doesn't mean that it's legal to smoke marijuana and then to drive. Prosecutors in the state of Texas can prove intoxication by marijuana in two ways. First, they can prove that you've lost the normal use of your mental faculties. Second, they can show that you lost the normal use of your physical faculties. Either one of those ways is going to be sufficient for the state to prove that you were driving while intoxicated by marijuana.

Is there a way to test someone to prove intoxication?

Now bear in mind, officers can still get a warrant for your blood for the purposes of testing for THC or other narcotics. Additionally, officers may ask you to submit to the standard field sobriety test or those tests on the side of the road looking for clues of intoxication. More agencies now are using what's called DREs or "Drug Recognition Experts." These are officers that are specially trained to recognize the signs of a drugged driver, and lastly, the most common way an officer figures out that somebody was driving while high is that the individual tells them that they were smoking marijuana or they have marijuana actually in the vehicle at the time of the arrest.

If found intoxicated what are the punishments?

So the punishment range for driving while intoxicated due to marijuana is going to be the same as your standard driving while intoxicated due to introduction of alcohol. You're looking at a Class B misdemeanor punishable up to 180 days in the county jail or up to two years of probation. Now it's worth noting that most of the people that pick up a driving while intoxicated due to marijuana usually have drugs in the vehicle as well and do face additional narcotics charges in addition to the DWI.

I've been charged with DWI. What should I do now?

So if you find yourself in a situation where you've been charged with driving while intoxicated even due to alcohol, drugs, or prescription pills, give us a call -- we can certainly help.