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Title: Court's Marijuana Ruling A Victory For Authorities; users can be arrested for drugged driving weeks after they toast a joint...
Source:
Jackson Citizen Patriot
URL Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/ ... -17/115099236535720.xml&coll=3
Published: Jun 22, 2006
Author: Steven Hepker
Post Date: 2006-06-22 17:59:53 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 233
Comments: 15
Marijuana users can be arrested for drugged driving weeks after they toast a joint, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a Jackson County appeal. A veteran prosecutor hailed the ruling as a correct interpretation of the zero-tolerance law that will make enforcement easier. A longtime defense attorney said the high court has opened the floodgates on overreaching government. "This goes to show the Supreme Court does not seem to care about individual rights," Jackson attorney Jerry Engle said. Advertisement At issue were cases from Jackson and Grand Traverse counties. The local case involved the prosecution of Dennis Kurts for driving under the influence of marijuana. Blackman Township police in February 2004 cited Kurts, 44, of Michigan Center, after he was stopped for driving erratically. He admitted smoking marijuana, police said. The time frame in which he smoked is unclear. A blood test did not detect the narcotic THC, or tetrahydrrocannabinol, which is in marijuana. Instead, the test showed the presence of carboxy THC, a benign product of metabolism that can remain in the blood for a month after marijuana use. Jackson County Circuit Judge Chad Schmucker dismissed the case in 2004 on the basis that the THC remnant was not an illegal controlled substance. Wednesday's ruling sends the case back to Schmucker's court. "The Supreme Court makes it clear carboxy THC is a controlled substance, and the Michigan Legislature says it is against the law to drive with any controlled substance in the body," said Jerrold Schrotenboer, appellate attorney for Prosecutor Hank Zavislak. Had the ruling gone the other way, prosecutors and defense attorneys would have to offer dueling expert witnesses to argue the issue, Schrotenboer said. The high court's ruling considers the THC derivative and the actual narcotic one in the same, rather than circumstantial evidence that a driver might have been high. "This makes it vastly easier for prosecutors to convict on drugged-driving charges," Schrotenboer said. That alarms Engle, who argued against Schrotenboer before the Supreme Court in January. Not all police and prosecutors use discretion, and some might see the same dollar signs that drive drunken-driving convictions, Engle said. The Legislature in recent years passed fees of up to $3,500 against drunken drivers, and those same fees apply to drugged driving, he said. "Suppose someone runs a red light into your car. The cop asks if you have smoked marijuana in the last several weeks," Engle said. "A blood test shows carboxy THC. The other guy gets a traffic ticket, and you go to jail."
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
When will enough ... be enough ??? Comrades, every second of every day ... you are accountable to Uncle Sambo.
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. Samuel Adams ... and I concur !
This one is pretty incredible, even for Michigan...
When, indeed? When we're strong enough? Next week, next month, next year?
A sure sign of authoritarianism is when the letter of the law supersedes the spirit of the law.
Hey, Mr Carboxy THC, play a song for me.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAH This is fucking hilarious. Seriously, I love the way this country is headed. Pretty soon, all the druggie riff raff will be behind bars. Then we'll have a truly utopian society. Yeah Right... This shit doesn't apply to me, because I don't smoke that shit. Have never, will never, even if I needed some kind of cancer cure. That shit is the escape valve that keeps people complacent, just like Booze, and other shit.
#2. To: noone222 (#1)
When will enough ... be enough ???
#3. To: noone222 (#1)
When will enough ... be enough ???
#4. To: Brian S (#0)
"The Supreme Court makes it clear carboxy THC is a controlled substance, and the Michigan Legislature says it is against the law to drive with any controlled substance in the body,"
#5. To: Brian S (#0)
carboxy THC
I've already said too much.
#6. To: Brian S (#0)
 | What's that Mr. Nipples? You want me to ask the nice lady about her rack?. |
#7. To: Brian S (#0)
Yet another outrage. I haven't even touched the stuff in 25 years, but it's basically harmless. Admittedly the stuff on the streets now is far more potent than when I was a kid, but you're a lot more likely to be pulled over for driving too slowly and safely than the opposite. As opposed to alcohol. This joint is turning into a police state, right before our eyes.
#8. To: Mekons4 (#7)
Driving 'stoned' is one thing but being charged for something you ingested weeks ago is indeed...bullshit.
#9. To: Brian S (#8)
Coming next: Roadblocks to check if you ever drank a beer. A simple snip at the corner of your liver should be adequate to prove that you have and BINGO, a DUI citation. Alberto will go in front of the Supreme Court and argue that since everyone is having liver biopsies, it's not a violation of civil rights. And the Supremes will rubber stamp it. Fascist state, at your service.
#10. To: Brian S (#0)
Aren't all prescription drugs "controlled substances"?
"The Supreme Court makes it clear carboxy THC is a controlled substance, and the Michigan Legislature says it is against the law to drive with any controlled substance in the body,"
Quit bogarting that peace, Herbert!
#11. To: Brian S (#0)
I'd light up a big one to protest if my wife's inlaws didn't steal it all.
#12. To: Brian S (#0)
Huh?
narcotic THC
There ought to be limits to freedom. - G.W. Bush, 21 May 1999
#13. To: Dakmar (#10)
they might be 'controlled' by the federal government's laws & regulations. but they have a particular law that identifies some drugs formally as 'controlled substances' and these are not the ones the doctor gives you. the ones the doctor gives you are controlled by law, but not officially categorized as 'controlled substances' by the law. stupid lawyers. they should all be required to smoke one big joint per month. maybe then the insanity would stop.
Aren't all prescription drugs "controlled substances"?
#14. To: Brian S, all, *LEAP* (#0)
A veteran prosecutor hailed the ruling as a correct interpretation of the zero-tolerance law that will make enforcement easier. A longtime defense attorney said the high court has opened the floodgates on overreaching government. "This goes to show the Supreme Court does not seem to care about individual rights," Jackson attorney Jerry Engle said. Begrüßen Sie die amerikanische Neue Weltordnung. Sieg heil. Marijuana users can be arrested for drugged driving weeks after they toast a joint, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a Jackson County appeal.
"Freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in -- and the West in general -- into an unbearable hell and a choking life."
--Osama bin Laden
"Prohibition...goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."
--- Abraham Lincoln December, 1840
#15. To: rack42 (#12)
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Huh ?
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Samuel Adams ... and I concur !
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