Wendy Murphy: Time to toughen the law on driving while stoned
Judge Janet Kenton-Walker found David Njuguna not guilty of driving under the influence of marijuana even though Njuguna tested positive for THC, a partly smoked joint was found on the floor of his car, and his driving was so reckless he was weaving in and out of lanes while going 80, then crossed three lanes and smashed into a cruiser, killing State Trooper Thomas Clardy.
The judge said there was “insufficient proof” the guy was high on marijuana, though she found him guilty of manslaughter and misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide, which means she determined Njuguna had reckless disregard for human life.
I guess it’s possible to recklessly disregard human life without being high, and vice versa, but Njuguna’s defense was that he had a seizure before the crash. I suspect it was like the one you have when you eat too many Twinkies before you kill someone.
You don’t need videotape proof of a person’s brain to connect the dots between an intoxicant and a crime, but there was a smoking gun — or rather a burnt joint — in this case, and the guy had THC in his blood, not anti-seizure medicine. Plus, who weaves in and out of traffic while having a seizure?
If Njuguna had tested positive for alcohol rather than THC, and if there was a half-drunk bottle of booze on the floor of his car, he still could have argued that a seizure rather than the alcohol made him do it, but the judge wouldn’t have bought it. Common sense works better for alcohol because we have been prosecuting OUI cases for a long time, and cops have standardized tests for assessing whether a person is under he influence of alcohol. There are no such tests, yet, for marijuana, so it’s harder to prove that impairment is caused by marijuana.
Charlie Baker has a solution. He filed a bill last year to standardize testing so cops can determine whether a person is under the influence of marijuana in a way that will be accepted by the courts. The bill has yet to be called for a hearing before the Judiciary Committee. The verdict in Njuguna’s case should give lawmakers the incentive they need to move the bill along.
Marijuana may be less lethal than alcohol, but it’s not benign. Just yesterday a California woman was charged with killing a pedestrian while driving under the influence of marijuana. It was California’s third fatal incident involving motorists impaired by marijuana since September. California law allows convictions for driving under the influence of marijuana based on field sobriety tests, chemical tests, and expert testimony from drug recognition experts.
Lawmakers in Massachusetts should take note and give law enforcement officials here the tools they need to stop pot-impaired drivers before another cop is killed.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2X9w3AJ
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