Types of Drug Impairment in Salisbury Drug DUI Cases

Even if it is a prescribed drug or an over the counter medication you can still be charged and convicted of being impaired by drugs or a combination of drugs and alcohol. You can even be charged and convicted if it is a medication that was prescribed to you by a doctor. However, it’s important to note that it is a defense if the defendant can show that he was taking the prescribed dose of the medication and was unaware that the drug or a combination of drugs would make him incapable of driving safely.

So there is that specific defense that a Salisbury Drug DUI lawyer could use. This typically occurs when an individual has been taking a medication and then another medication is prescribed in addition to the first and the defendant was not advised what side effects might occur with that specific combination of drugs.  And it has somehow affected their coordination or their ability to operate a motor vehicle safely but they didn’t know that. So that is oftentimes where that defense will be relevant.

Over the Counter Medication

Even an over the counter medication like Benadryl can lead to a charge of driving while impaired by drugs. This is one of the reasons why it is so very important to educate  yourself about what types of drugs you are taking, even the ones that you are taking over the counter. This is also why it’s very important that if you are being prescribed a new medication you should let that doctor know what other prescriptions you may already be taking. Because sometimes a particular drug may not have any side effects that would affect your ability to drive a car, but that drug taken in combination with another drug can cause issues that prevent a person from being able to drive their car safely.

Involuntary vs Voluntary Intoxication as Defenses

Specifically under the statute voluntary intoxication can be used as a defense if the defendant can show that he or she was taking the prescribed dose of the medication and was not aware that the drug or the combination of drugs would impact his ability to drive the vehicle safely. That would require having testimony from the defendant that they took the drug as it was prescribed while also showing that they were not advised that the combination of drugs would impact his ability to drive the car.

This is not an easy defense. In fact it can be a very difficult defense to prove especially in this day and age where most prescription drugs now come with warning labels on the bottles and a large amount of paperwork that a patient receives from the pharmacy that explains all of the potential side effects of the medication. It is a possible defense, but it should not be described as being a commonly successful defense.

Drug Interactions and Salisbury Drug DUIs

A drug interaction could be a very, very distinct defense. That sort of defense is not related to being advised of all the typical warnings like this medication may cause drowsiness. Sometimes individuals when they first begin taking a medication might have a very adverse reaction to it that they did not anticipate and their doctors probably do not anticipate it either.

So it can be a very unique defense for an individual who had just started taking a medication or just added a new medication to a regimen of medications. It is certainly possible to raise the defense that that individual did not know and could not have known that they would have a very unique reaction to that drug or that a new drug taken in combination with an already prescribed drug that those two drugs are going to interact in such a way that it was going to affect the person’s ability to operate the car.