I had an interaction recently with a defendant charged with a DUI offense in connection with his use of marijuana. The defendant was adamant that he was not “high,” and provided his vast experience and insights gained over many years of smoking marijuana to support his conclusion that he was not “high” when he was driving his motor vehicle. He admitted that he had smoked marijuana, but contended that it was several hours prior to the traffic stop, so he believed that he was fine to drive.
With the increasing societal drive to legalize recreational marijuana, this particular question may be one of those that toxicologists will have to address – what level of THC in the bloodstream renders a person incapable of safely driving. THC is the component that shows up in a blood test to identify the use of marijuana. As Pennsylvania law stands right now, we have a zero tolerance for THC levels in the blood – if there is any THC in your blood when you are operating a motor vehicle, you will be arrested for a DUI offense.
There was a recent Superior Court case that highlighted the “zero tolerance” policy. In that case, the defendant was pulled over by the police for a suspended registration. The police officer noticed an odor of marijuana emanating from the vehicle – and placed the defendant under arrest for suspicion of DUI and obtained a blood sample. The subsequent blood test revealed 7.7 nanograms per milliliter of THC in his blood. The defendant was then charged with DUI and he sought to suppress the blood sample.
The defendant argued that the police officer had no probable cause to demand a blood sample as there was nothing to suggest that he was incapable of safely driving or otherwise impaired. The traffic stop was not related to any suggestion of impaired driving – it was a bad registration. There were no field sobriety tests that demonstrated any level of impairment of his motor skills so as to reflect on his ability to safely drive. In other words, the police officer sought a blood sample based only on the odor of marijuana emanating from the motor vehicle. The trial court refused to suppress the evidence and convicted him of the DUI offense. The defendant then appealed his conviction and argued that the trial court erred in not suppressing the blood sample.
In his appeal, the defendant attempted to rely upon case law that prohibited the police from seeking a blood sample based simply on the driver’s breath exhibiting an odor of alcoholic beverage. The police are required to develop something more than simply the odor of alcohol before seeking a blood or breath test – the police must develop a record to demonstrate impairment to support the requested sample. Defendant again argued that the odor of marijuana should be treated the same way – it should not be enough standing alone to get a blood test.
The Superior Court rejected this argument as follows: “However, the Vehicle Code treats consumption of alcohol differently from consumption of marijuana. The Vehicle Code does not preclude an adult from consuming any amount of alcohol and then operating a motor vehicle in Pennsylvania. Instead, the Vehicle Code precludes operation of a motor vehicle only ‘after imbibing a sufficient amount of alcohol such that the individual is rendered incapable of safely driving, operating or being in actual physical control of the movement of the vehicle.’ On the other hand, the Vehicle Code precludes an individual from operating a motor vehicle with any amount of scheduled controlled substances, or a metabolite thereof, in the driver’s blood. Because marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance, the Vehicle Code prohibits an individual from operating a vehicle after consuming any amount of marijuana. As a result, unlike cases where police suspect alcohol-based DUI, evidence of operator consumption of any marijuana is enough to allow the police to request a [blood sample].”
Because the police officer smelled the odor of burnt marijuana inside the motor vehicle – and the defendant was not only the driver, but the only occupant – the Superior Court concluded that the request for a blood sample was lawful without any further indication of impairment. Indeed, impairment is not even necessary for an arrest for DUI as it relates to controlled substances. Any amount of a controlled substance – or its metabolite – in a driver’s blood will support an arrest and conviction.
Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org.
Last week we discussed the harvesting of baby body parts by Planned Parenthood. This week’s commentary is about the harvesting of your personal data. Imagine that you live in a FREE STATE rather than the current panoptic Surveillance State we so “enjoy” today. Your life would indeed be very different.
Do you have a “smart” phone? Seems most folks do these days. While that phone keeps you in touch with the world, it also does something else. It doubles as a personal tracking device. So nice that Big Brother (BB) can pinpoint not only your current location, but where you were (or at least where your phone was) at any previous time.
Of course, BB also obtains your meta-data. Meta-data, of course, is the data concerning length of your phone calls, what numbers you called, and what numbers called you. If that isn’t alarming enough, perhaps the recording and archiving of every single phone conversation you’ve had in the last five years might disturb you. (It was not for nothing that BB built NSA’s super-secret facility in Utah a few years ago.)
Oh, I know what you’re thinking: I’m not guilty of anything; the most exciting thing I’ve talked about is Grandpa’s rheumatism or Aunt Sally’s tuna salad. “You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide” Now who said that? Why yes, it was Josef Goebbels, Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda! For anyone not paying attention, NSA whistleblower Eric Snowden made it clear that everything is recorded and everyone has something to fear and to hide.
Ah, perhaps you’ve refused to join the trendy smart-phone crowd. But have you been to your doctor lately? I’m sure there are still a few docs out there that have time to look you in the eye, but those will be far fewer soon. You see, if you don’t already have an EMR (Electronic Medical Record) you soon will. If you’re one of the 10 million or so who have Obamacare then BB has access to your record. BB in this case includes IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, and a host of other agencies. Have you VA, Medicaid, or Medicare for coverage? Well then, BB has all your healthcare information “safely” filed. Think it can’t be compromised?
Consider IRS. File your taxes lately? If you haven’t, be assured BB is looking for you--and will find you, unless, of course, you are an illegal alien, in which case you get a pass, or up to $24,000 in bonus back taxes you never paid in the first place. But never forget that IRS is THE government agency tasked with enforcing Obamacare compliance. Only in America do we entrust tax collectors to make sure we have the health insurance we’re required to buy. What a country!
Perhaps you’ve decided you’ll forget all this and just go shopping. Don’t stop by the bank or an ATM to make a withdrawal unless you want the transaction recorded by surveillance cameras. Ask for too much money and you’ll get the third degree and reports will be filed with the proper authorities. Just use a credit or debit card to avoid the hassle, right? Oops, those transactions will be duly recorded and archived to live long after you’ve passed on to your reward. Since 9/11 no transaction is deemed too small or too inconsequential to bypass BB’s watchful gaze. Yes, the bank maintains your bank records, but remember, your financial records will be made available to BB whenever the need (want) arises for meticulous scrutiny, particularly in light of any views you may hold which are not in fashion by the reigning faction.
You did take your car to go shopping, right? Supposing you have a late-model car, there is a black box installed in your vehicle. Don’t worry, BB says he’ll never look at the information it contains . . . unless you have an accident. Don’t pay any attention to mumblings from your insurance company where agents rather fancy the idea of downloading data from your black box information to accurately monitor your driving habits and determine your insurance rates. And don’t worry about that little experiment being put into place out in Oregon. What, you say you haven’t heard about the Oregon experiment currently underway? You know, the one where you’ll be taxed by the mile? Saves people a ton of money I heard, since they don’t want to clog up the roads nearly so much as before the tax. Just a thought, but don’t you think BB will have to download your black box on a regular basis to know how much to tax you for those miles driven? Will it not then also have the recorded information to exactly everywhere the car has been driven? But you have nothing to fear, right?
Well, perhaps you’ll just stay home and shop online today. No problem, BB is recording every keystroke and will track your every purchase. And just for fun log on to Facebook or Twitter; BB is there too--unobtrusively and unobservedly lurking in the background--but just for your protection, of course. Think BB is joking? BB knows when someone makes an insult against the President. A couple of years ago a pre-pubescent boy found out the hard way when a SWAT team showed up at his home after he made the “wrong” comment on Facebook.
Alright, so maybe you’ll stay off that computer to keep some semblance of privacy. Make sure you unplug your laptop, take the battery out, and ALWAYS keep the “eye” covered; BB likes to watch, even when--well, perhaps especially when--you’d never suspect BB to be watching.
Do you have a TV? If it’s relatively new, you might want to check the owner’s manual. Samsung has been particularly proud of its feature which allows “them” to watch you while you watch your TV. Yes, “they” DO sell access, and yes, if “they” have access so, too does BB, by default.
So let‘s review, no smart phone, no landline, no car, no cash, no credit/debit cards, no social media accounts, no doctors, no computers, and no TV. Are you safe yet? Um, do you have electricity? By law, already on the books, Pennsylvania is scheduled to convert all electric meters to “smart” meters by 2023. Smart meters will monitor electricity in your living unit, whether house or apartment, and will know when you go to bed, when you get up, when you’re home, and most certainly when you’re not. And for good measure your smart meter will be able to automatically reduce your consumption whenever necessary--for the good of the collective. You see, there WILL be an electricity shortage at some point because BB policies have purposely prevented upgrades to electrical infrastructure and required closing of coal-powered electrical generation plants.
Ah, but well before the rationing of energy BB is engineering the take-over of cash. It’s the dream of governments everywhere to outlaw cash. Requiring citizens’ every transaction to be by electronic means provides BB with the golden opportunity to tax every purchase. Digital money also implicitly allows BB to control everyone, everywhere, at least theoretically. In the cashless society envisioned by BB those stepping out of line would have their electronic accounts deleted, canceled, erased, or otherwise made null and void. Dissidents would suffer without internet access, effectively being interned into a “dumb” world devoid of any ability to buy or sell, and one in which it would be a crime for anyone to give a dissident any thing. (It’s already illegal to give food to homeless people in many jurisdictions.)
Yes, I know all this sounds like science fiction, but can you disprove any of it? Big Brother wants to know EVERYTHING about you. BB wants to know what you know, who you know, and what interests and relationships you have. Beyond that, and most of all, BB wants to know what you are going to do next. You see, it really IS all about control--total control.
To enforce total control BB proposes pre-cognition. The Pre-Crime Unit is only in its infancy at the moment. What it matures into is more monstrous than I can imagine. Data harvesting is the mechanism; security the lie; totalitarianism the goal. The antidote is LIBERTY! Awaken the asleep; liberty lost is never regained.
To Sleep Or Not To Sleep
Maryann, 35, comes into the pharmacy for a refill on her sleep medication. She yawns as she hands the prescription to the pharmacist who notices that it has 5 refills on it – that’s a total of 6 months worth of pills. “Do the pills work for you?” asked the pharmacist. “Not as they did before,” replied Maryann. “Sometimes I have to get up in the middle of the night to take a second dose.” The pharmacist responded, “Doing it that way can leave you groggy all day.”
According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults, including the elderly, need 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Sleep is essential in all animals. If sleep was not necessary, one would expect to find animal species that do not sleep at all, animals that do not need recovery sleep after staying awake longer than usual, and animals that suffer no serious consequences because of lost sleep.
However, some factors interfere with sleep such as obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and arthritis pain. When insomnia ensues, the brain cannot effectively be restored. Sleeping medications such as Ambien and Lunesta are popular treatments for insomnia, and have become a major source of revenue for drug companies. Although these non-benzodiazepine medications are generally believed to be better and safer than earlier generations of sedatives, such as the benzodiazepine sedatives Halcion and Dalmane, they have generated some controversy and discussion regarding side-effects. The best thing is to discontinue sleeping pills ASAP before you become psychologically addicted to them.
To get better sleep, the National Sleep Foundation recommends that you follow these sleep tips:
Establish consistent sleep and wake schedules, even on weekends
Create a regular, relaxing bedtime routine such as soaking in a hot bath or listening to soothing music – begin an hour or more before the time you expect to fall asleep
Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool
Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows
Buy a white noise machine which can pleasantly minimize outside noise.
Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex; avoid watching TV, using a computer, or reading in bed
Finish eating at least 2 to 3 hours before your regular bedtime
Avoid caffeine, cola, chocolate and alcohol products close to bedtime
Take a short afternoon nap to recharge. But, napping too long means having trouble sleeping that night.
The pharmacist explained this to Maryann who conceded that she had some work to do to improve her sleep architecture. Within a few months the pharmacist noted that Maryann was not getting her sleeping pill refilled every month. The next time she saw the pharmacist, she said that she never felt better. She especially likes her new white noise machine which gradually lolls her to sleep to the sound of waves crashing on the beach.
Ron Gasbarro, PharmD is a pharmacist, medical writer, and principal at Rx-Press.com. Write him at ron@rx-press.com.
