(WAND) - While it's now legal to use recreational marijuana in Illinois, it's still against the law to drive while under the influence of the drug. While state and local law enforcement are working to keep stoned drivers off the road, some are questioning the reliability of cannabis impairment testing.
The Illinois State Police says, while cannabis use may have increased statewide in 2020, its focus remains the same - recognizing and removing impaired drivers from the road, regardless of the specific cause of impairment.
"Impairment is impairment, so it really doesn't matter if the impairment is from alcohol, cannabis, prescription medication, heroin," says Mike Pappas, Impaired Driving Coordinator, Illinois State Police. "If a person has impairment, they have impairment."
The Decatur Police Department says essentially the same thing. Despite the recent hiring of a DUI Enforcement Officer, Chief Jim Getz insists that officer is policing all impaired driving in the city, not just drivers who use cannabis.
"That's just unrealistic," Getz says. "Somebody patrolling the streets, just looking for somebody driving under the influence of cannabis would be impossible... When an officer's out looking and patrolling the streets, and watching for those drivers that may be under the influence, they don't know at the time whether they're under the influence of alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, whatever it may be. Or maybe they're not under the influence of anything, maybe they were distracted by their phone."
Here's how a cannabis DUI arrest happens in Illinois:
- If a law enforcement officer suspects a driver is impaired, they can pull the driver over and administer a series of field sobriety tests.
- If the driver doesn't appear impaired to the officer, the officer will release them.
- If the officer suspects the driver is impaired, they will arrest the driver.
- If the officer suspects cannabis impairment - based on indicators like smell or demeanor - they'll ask the driver to submit to blood and urine tests.
- The driver can refuse to submit to the tests, but they'll lose their license for a year.
- If the driver's blood test shows 5 nanograms or more of THC per mL of whole blood, or 10 nanograms or more of THC per mL of another bodily substance, they will lose their driver's license for 6 months.
Pappas says the amount of cannabis it would take to reach those levels depends on how it's consumed, and it differs from person to person.
"There is no correlation between how much cannabis can be smoked and the impairment levels of the person," Pappas says.
Instead of trying to determine the THC levels in one's bloodstream, Pappas offers much simpler advice to avoid getting a cannabis DUI.
"Don't drive after smoking cannabis," he says.
While the Illinois State Police doesn't track numbers on cannabis-related DUI arrests, Bloomington-based attorney Brendan Bukalski says he's seen an increase in those types of cases this year, many involving drivers who he thinks were not truly impaired.
"It's not uncommon for individuals to be arrested for cannabis DUIs and believe that they were not impaired," Bukalski says. "In my experience, with the current DUI laws, most of the time, individuals are not impaired."
Bukalski says he believes this is because using THC to measure impairment is problematic.
"Cannabis, when you consume it, you stop feeling that high within a couple of hours, but T-H-C can remain in your bloodstream for a long time," he says.
"Very rarely do you see individuals arrested for DUI and they're actively smoking a joint, or have smoked a joint within the last couple of hours."
While the state of Illinois has assembled a DUI cannabis task force designed to improve DUI cannabis enforcement, that task force has not yet convened because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More information on Cannabis DUIs can be found in the Illinois 2020 DUI Fact book here.
