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  Court Says Idaho Motorists Can Drive While High
Posted by FoM on March 21, 2002 at 18:37:24 PT
By Jessica Brice, Associated Press Writer  
Source: Associated Press  

cannabisnews.com Idaho motorists can still drive high, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday, but not for long.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stood by its earlier ruling that it is legal to drive high in Idaho, as long as you can drive straight. In doing so, it shot down a request to rehear the case against an Idaho man arrested in 1998 for driving under the influence of marijuana.

Federal prosecutors asked the appeals court to review its decision after a three-judge panel overturned Matthew Patzer's impaired driving conviction in January because of a loophole in Idaho law.

Patzer was pulled over on Sept. 27, 1998, for a broken tailgate light. At the time, 21-year-old Patzer told a New Plymouth police officer that he had smoked marijuana at a party, but the court found that he had not been driving erratically and had passed two field sobriety tests. When police searched his Chevrolet Blazer, they found a small arsenal of illegal weapons.

Current Idaho laws make it illegal to drive under the influence of alcohol and narcotics. But marijuana is not listed in the books as a narcotic, so police cannot assume that a person is impaired just because he smoked pot, the court ruled.

"The entirety of the government's probable cause argument in response to Patzer's appeal was that marijuana is a narcotic," the appeals court wrote. "We resolved this argument adversely to the government, finding that Idaho law consistently defines marijuana as outside the category of narcotic drugs."

The Idaho Legislature sent Gov. Dirk Kempthorne a bill last week closing the legal loophole. The bill states that driving a vehicle under the influence of drugs or intoxicating substances -- including marijuana -- is a crime. Kempthorne's staff said the governor will sign the bill.

The court's decision also throws out the government's request to reconsider its reversal of Patzer's illegal weapons convictions. The court ruled in January that because of Patzer's unlawful arrest, it was illegal to search his vehicle.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Burrow, in Boise, Idaho, said the government is considering bringing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case is United States v. Matthew Patzer, 00-30360

Source: Associated Press
Author: Jessica Brice, Associated Press Writer
Published: March 21, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press

Related Articles:

Officials To Fight Marijuana Loophole
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11810.shtml

Idaho OKs Marijuana With Driving
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11763.shtml


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Comment #4 posted by Patrick on March 22, 2002 at 07:02:48 PT
Drivin
The Idaho Legislature sent Gov. Dirk Kempthorne a bill last week closing the legal loophole. The bill states that driving a vehicle under the influence of drugs or intoxicating substances -- including marijuana -- is a crime. Kempthorne's staff said the governor will sign the bill.

The above bill is an example of the typical knee-jerk reactionary way that this once great country gets polluted with a bunch of f*cked up laws!

What next Idaho? Drug Clarification laws! You'll just have to do tests to see which drugs f*ck up which people for driving and which drugs don't. No need for volunteers. It applies to all drivers. You will create a clogged up testing system even more overburdened than the ones we have now. But that is ok. The roads will be safe from drugs.

Any and all drug use will now be crime. We all will be guilty until we piss innocent. Then licensed with monthly piss testing results being posted on the big board at the national transportation safety administration. You see the innocent until proven guilty only applies to your rights not your privileges.

So Governor, when do we get busy testing everyone's driving skills? Can we please start with Aspirin, since it begins with the first letter of the Alphabet? It would be more organized that way. We will just make it a law. Starting with the letter A. Ok, next law. When we get to the Heroin test I would prefer to skip it. We can skip the drugs that we don't want to take before the test, right? I made a promise never to even try that H one. We can skip certain drugs right? What about the drugs we already know mess us up like alcohol? I don't need to be tested on that one do I? I am convinced it impairs the sh!t of me. I don't have to be tested for tea, either do I? A few too many cups and I will stop the car anywhere to give the earth a sample pee. Consider it a free one officer. I realize that stopping to pee is hazardous on a busy freeway. So mark my magnetic strip: No driving under tea or alcohol. When it comes to the coke test, the LSD test, the shrooms test, the meth test, and a whole host of other drugs I prefer to never ever ingest or ingest again, I can skip those ones too, right, Mr. Testing Officer? Or is what I take not my choice anymore? Well, I know you prefer your sample of my pee in a cup so here you go big guy and yes, those are my initials on the lid.

Just think, we will drug drive test everyone for everything. Of course, it will be law. This will be a boon to the economy too. Piss centers will pop up faster than 7/11's and McDonalds on every street in America. Signs will read: PISS HERE QUIKER & In A Hurry? PISS HERE. The state will still maintain its authority over our driving privileges. A whole new industry will spring forth, Autourineology. It will tie mankind's urinary tract directly into the automobile for improved safety and performance. Wow! Cottage industries will develop and supply new testing and raw urine transfer services that will revolutionize the way the Homeland collects pee and taxes. We will all be happy to pee under this new law because the initial pee fee tax will remain stable for the first ten years of the program. Imagine the possibilities here folks. We will get real results under this new law instead of some quack @ss funded university study.

Testing everyone on everything for individual driving performance. Hell people, it's not a right to be tested it's a privilege!!! Am I right or what Governor? Lots of people take drugs in this country. Most of them prescription drugs. There are inattentive people all over our freeways. What are they on? Inquiring minds want to know. Test em! Of course the NTSB will need to shut down all the roads like the FAA did with the skies on 9/11. Just until everyone gets tested and cleared of any and all drugs. Once you've been tested for every drug there is from Aspirin to Zoloft, you will be considered safe to exercise your privilege to drive the road in the great state of Idaho and beyond.

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Comment #3 posted by DdC on March 22, 2002 at 03:10:42 PT
Court Says Idaho Motorists CAN Drive While High...
Looks like many agree, including science...padumpbump!

Crancer Study, Washington Department of Motor Vehicles
"Simulated driving scores for subjects experiencing a normal social "high" and the same subjects under control conditions are not significantly different. However, there are significantly more errors for alcohol intoxicated than for control subjects"

Australia: No Proof Cannabis Put Drivers At Risk (2001)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1849/a09.html

Hippies Against Drunk Driving
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/hadd

U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(DOT HS 808 078), Final Report, November 1993
"THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small"

Australia: Cannabis Crash Risk Less: Study (1998)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n945/a08.html

3 strikes and your out Mr.Bush
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=184.topic

Professor Olaf Drummer, a forensic scientist the Royal College of Surgeons in Melbourne in 1996
":Compared to alcohol, which makers people take more risks on the road, marijuana made drivers slow down and drive more carefully....
Cannabis is good for driving skills, as people tend to overcompensate for a perceived impairment.":

UK: Cannabis May Make You A Safer Driver (2000)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1161/a02.html

Dubya's Driving Record
http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/31/31140.jpg

Judge James Pickles, UK
"Cannabis never killed anybody and it's use is widespread. You can"t stop it. The law defeats itself because all the efforts to stop drugs coming in only drives up the prices and then gangsters move in to push the drugs. If they legalised there wouldn't be gangsters and huge profits...The police are gradually decriminalising the possession of cannabis because they realise there's not much point prosecuting"

University Of Toronto Study Shows Marijuana Not A Factor In Driving Accidents (1999)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases\1999\03\990325110700.htm

CONFIRMED: Dubya not allowed into Canada???
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=186.topic

Dr. Andrew Weil (Rubin & Comitas Ganja in Jamaica, 1975)
"a-motivation [is] a cause of heavy marijuana smoking rather than the reverse"

Australia: Study Goes to Pot (1998)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n947/a06.html

MADD Polls Presidential Candidates 2000
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=187.topic

PDFA: Slickly Packaged Lies
http://www.jackherer.com/book/ch14.html

Tobacco+.........................435,175
Alcohol*.........................100.000
Secondhand smoke**.................3,800
Overdoses illegal hard drugs*......3,600
Overdoses legal drugs*............21,000
Cocaine/crack overdoses*...........1,969
Heroin overdoses*..................1,046
Aspirin overdoses*.................1,000
Marijuana overdoses*...................0
Sources;
+ Federal Center for Disease Control, 1990
*US Public Health Service
**Environmental Protection Agency 1990

I have always loved marijuana. It has been a source of joy and comfort to me for many years. And I still think of it as a basic staple of life, along with beer and ice and grapefruits - and millions of Americans agree with me.
Hunter S. Thompson


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Comment #2 posted by JHarshaw on March 21, 2002 at 19:29:55 PT
Sheer bad sportsmanship
"Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Burrow, in Boise, Idaho, said the government is considering bringing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court."

You've lost this. Get over it!



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by The GCW on March 21, 2002 at 18:53:51 PT
Victory
lap. (...the government is considering bringing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.) What does all this cost citizens?

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