Fairfax DUI Drug Lawyer
Drug DUI cases are not as common as cases involving alcohol, but they still do occur and can result in serious penalties. A Fairfax DUI drug lawyer can help individuals through a DUI charge relating to drugs. Contact a professional attorney today to protect your freedoms.
How Frequent Are DUI Drug Convictions in Fairfax?
It is hard to say with any certainty what percentage of people who are charged with DUIs based on drugs are convicted because every case is different. It depends on a number of variables but, most importantly, it depends on the level of drugs that are present in their blood at the time that they are tested. Toxicologists have a list of drugs and the toxicity levels of those drugs that are considered by the scientific community to be too high in order to operate in a safe manner.
However, the inquiry does not necessarily have to end there. If a person is below the threshold for what is generally considered to be scientifically acceptable levels that are too high, they still could potentially be convicted if the driving behavior was extremely erratic, resulted in an accident, or there were other variables present during the course of the DUI investigation.
Circumstances of Driving Under the Influence of Drugs
If the officer pulls a person over because they believe the driver was under the influence, and a person might have visible physical signs such as dilated pupils or other indications of intoxication, then the officer will start to ask questions about what they have been up to and whether they have taken any pills or if they have used any drugs. Once that investigation begins, it depends entirely on how the person responds to those questions and how they might proceed from there. A Fairfax drug DUI lawyer can offer more information on the stop process.
Difference Between Drug DUI Stop and Standard DUI Stop
Most of the time, these stops are identical. Most of the time, the officer asks the person to make statements about what they have been up to and if they have taken anything that day. Officers might engage in field sobriety testing to determine whether or not there were visible signs of impairment. The only possible exception would be if the officer smelled alcohol on that person’s breath and they may not administer a preliminary breath test. However, most of the time, officers are willing to administer a preliminary breath test to rule out the possibility that alcohol is the determining factor of impairment.
Substances Involved in Drug DUI
There are a wide range of substances that might lead to an arrest. It could be illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, marijuana, et cetera. It could be prescribed drugs such as opioid-base painkillers. It could be over-the-counter drugs such as Benadryl or other drugs that tend to make some people drowsy. Even if they took a legal, over-the-counter or prescribed drug, a person can be charged with drug DUI in Fairfax if they were driving erratically.
Hiring a Fairfax Drug DUI Lawyer
A competent drug DUI lawyer in Fairfax can aid a person through a case. They can provide the legal knowledge needed to fight the case. A Fairfax drug DUI lawyer is experienced in these matters, contact one today if you are facing drug DUI charges.
