Drug Testing in Manassas Drug DUI Cases
Unlike in DUI cases related to alcohol, in Manassas DUI drug cases a blood test is needed to determine impairment. Below, a Manassas DUI lawyer discusses these tests, the administration of blood tests, and how you may be able to use it as a defense. To learn more, call and schedule a consultation today.
Tests Used To Detect Drug Impairment
The only tests they have to test drug impairment are blood tests, which can be done according to the statute. There are experimental tests they might be using at some point in the future but I’ve never heard of a police officer in Virginia using any kind of roadside tests to detect impairment other than the preliminary breath test, which of course only tests for the presence of alcohol.
Administration of Blood Tests
Police officers are not authorized to extract blood from a person. It depends on the jurisdiction and what personnel they have on staff at the time. There are statutory requirements for a person to be eligible to extract blood from a person based upon a DUI investigation.
If the police or the jail don’t have anybody on duty at the time the person is arrested, in many cases they’ll be taken to the nearest hospital where a nurse or some other professional authorized by statute will withdraw the blood.
Commonly Implicated Drugs in Manassas DUID Cases
I would say the most common is marijuana but there are also other drugs such as Ambien or other pills. Narcotic pain meds are often implicated. The least common are cocaine, meth or PCP. Those are rarely implicated; I’ve only had a few of those in the course in my career.
Ability of Blood Tests to Detect Legal Substances Like Allergy Medication
Blood tests can pick up anything being looked for. Law enforcement can find any substance that they know exists and test for the presence of that substance in the blood.
Blood Test Evaluation
A hospital can certainly analyze it on the spot. However, for a DUI case there’s a protocol involved and the protocol is that the government must send the blood samples to the Department of Forensic Science to engage in their own testing procedures. Those labs are often backed up and it takes quite a bit of time to get results. Results can sometimes take months to get back. It really depends on how busy the lab is and how many people they have working to analyze blood samples.
Once the blood sample back, you have the right to demand that a second sample of the blood be analyzed by an independent laboratory. This often significantly increases delays. The independent laboratory sometimes doesn’t receive the blood until months after DFS has analyzed their testing. I have had many blood cases that have gone on for longer than six months without our independent laboratory receiving the sample, and due to the delays involved with having the independent laboratory perform their analysis.
Refusing to Take Blood Test in Manassas
According to Virginia law, if a person is arrested for the suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs, that person is required to submit a blood test. If a person unreasonably refuses a blood test, they can be charged with a separate and distinct offense called refusal. A refusal conviction carries a 12-month automatic loss of license and that license when suspended cannot be reissued in restricted form.
Accuracy of Drug Tests in Drug DUI Cases
That depends on whom you ask. The state lab will tell you that these blood tests are iron clad and perfectly accurate. I, however, disagree as a general rule. There are ways that we can acquire this specific testing that was used on the sample in question and we can actually look at the graphs from the chromatograph that they used in order to determine what level of what substance is there. The way it looks when you get the actual documents is you’ll see a graph that shows peaks and those peaks are designed to indicate the presence and quantity of the substance that they’re searching for.
But I’ve seen so many cases where these peaks are flawed. Sometimes they’ve adjusted the baseline to accentuate the graph, and in other cases I have seen them shift the curve itself to make it appear more accurate than it really is. The good news is we have experts on call who are well versed in blood testing protocols and who are experienced in analyzing the government’s analysis to determine if there are any flaws in their procedures.
