I handle a lot of Driving While Intoxicated cases. And, as you’d probably assume, the vast majority of those cases involve people who have been pulled over by the police and arrested for suspicion of drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol. You may already know that in Texas, the legal definition of intoxicated means having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more. So, the focus of most alcohol-related DWI cases is whether or not the person who was arrested had an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more at the time he or she was driving. But, what about someone who has no alcohol in their system? Can you get a DWI for being tired? What about driving while taking prescription drugs? Can you drive while taking Xanax or Hydrocodone that’s been prescribed to you by a doctor?
You Can be Arrested for DWI Even if You Haven’t Been Drinking Alcohol
In Texas, having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more is actually only one of the ways you can be arrested and charged with DWI. You may also be arrested for DWI if the police feel that you have lost the normal use of your mental or physical faculties as a result of taking a drug, controlled substance, prescription medication, or other substance. This means that you can absolutely be arrested for driving while intoxicated without having had even a single drop of alcohol to drink!
Can You Get a DWI for Being Tired or Lost?
Unfortunately, yes. Police are trained to look for signs of intoxication. They are not trained to look for signs of fatigue, medical conditions, being lost, etc. Furthermore, they don’t care about ruling out other possible causes of bad driving or uncommon behavior before making an arrest for DWI. A police officer’s primary concern is community safety. So, an officer will almost always arrest someone they even suspect of driving while intoxicated and leave it to the court system to sort out later on down the road. When it comes to drinking and driving, the police will always play it safe.
Most Police Officers are Not Trained to Conduct Proper DWI Investigations in Cases Where Alcohol is Not Involved.
If you’re thinking to yourself, “this doesn’t sound too good,” just wait. It gets worse. Most police officers have no formal, scientific, or technical training for detecting intoxication due to any substance other than alcohol. Police officers are trained on how to conduct the standardized field sobriety tests that were created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration back in the 1970s. But, those tests were studied, designed, and created to detect intoxication due to alcohol.
There actually is a formal training program offered by the International Association of Chiefs of Police that a police officer may take to help him or her determine if an individual is under the influence of a substance other than alcohol and become certified as a Drug Recognition Expert (DRE). But, due to the time, cost, and commitment of the training program, very few police officers receive DRE training or are certified as DREs. For instance, as of April, 2019, McKinney Police Department in Collin County does not employ a single police officer who is certified as a DRE.
Defending Against Drug-Related DWI Charges Not Involving Alcohol
Driving while intoxicated cases that do not involve alcohol are pretty uncommon. The problem with this is that police officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and even judges usually don’t have much experience dealing with these types of cases. Therefore, having a DWI lawyer who has experience and success at handling and defending no alcohol DWI cases gives you the greatest possible chance at winning at trial.
The State’s prosecutor will try everything possible to prove up a DWI case against you that was bogus from the very start. If the arresting officer isn’t a DRE and didn’t conduct a proper DWI investigation, he or she shouldn’t be permitted to testify at trial as an expert and offer an opinion as to whether or not you were intoxicated by anything other than alcohol. If the prosecutor tries to call a forensic toxicologist to look at a lab report and testify that a certain amount of a prescription medication or other substance caused you to be intoxicated, that isn’t what the law says. There is no legal limit for drugs or prescription medications in a DWI case like there is for alcohol. Contact me today at (972) 372-4054 for a free consultation to discuss your options and see how I can help you if you’ve been charged with a non-alcohol related DWI!