marijuana dui update az castillo law

Video Blog: Marijuana DUI Update for AZ

Cindy CastilloDUI, Law News, Arizona Law




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Hi, my name is Cindy Castillo with Castillo Law.

Today I’d like to talk to you about a new Arizona Supreme Court opinion regarding Carboxy-THC.

In the Shilgevorkyan case, which is the Arizona Supreme Court case, the court was considering whether or not it is illegal for an individual to drive while having the metabolite carboxy in their system. The Supreme Court in the state of Arizona has decided that in fact it is not illegal for an individual to drive with carboxy in their system.

Now what does that mean exactly? Well if you have smoked any form of marijuana, typically you will have THC in your system for some time after having ingested marijuana. The THC eventually metabolizes into two separate forms of metabolite.

The first is hydroxy. That sometimes can be impairing and unfortunately the Supreme Court has not decided whether or not hydroxy is an illegal metabolite to have in your blood if driving. However, the Supreme Court did decide that once the hydroxy metabolises into carboxy, that is not impairing and you cannot receive a DUI for just the drug carboxy, or the metabolite carboxy in your system.

Does that mean that you can’t ever get a DUI if you just have carboxy in your system? In the state of Arizona, we know that the Supreme Court has stated yes, however it’s very important that you understand that if you have carboxy with any other form of illegal drug or if you have alcohol in your system, the state still can pursue a DUI against you for the other types of drugs. The only thing that the Supreme Court has decided is that carboxy alone will not cause you to be prosecuted for a DUI.

If you have this type of case, you should consider speaking with an attorney who is experienced in this area. Also, if you have been prosecuted and actually convicted of a DUI in the past for only having the drug carboxy in your system, you should also consider talking to an attorney to determine whether or not that case may be able to be set aside or overturned. Thank you.
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