Did you know you could possibly be charged with a DUI even if you have consumed no alcohol, have no illegal drugs in your system, and have no prescription drugs in your system? Unfortunately this is true. In Utah, and many other states, you can charged with a DUI for driving under the influence of “any drug” which renders you incapable of safely operating your vehicle. Yes, “any drug” could even mean over the counter medications that people take routinely. Many over the counter medications can cause people to become drowsy or incapable of safely operating a vehicle. For instance, lets say you were on a combination of non prescription medicines dealing with allergies and a cold and you were driving drowsy which caused you to be all over the road. Under that scenario, you could potentially be charged with a DUI even though you may have had no alcohol or illegal substances in your body, only Benedryl and NyQuil.
Defending Against “Any Drug” DUIs
At our law office, we have dealt with many over zealous prosecutors who have decided to charge individuals with DUIs when they had no measurable controlled substance in their body and no alcohol. We fight hard against these types of cases because it seems generally unfair to so dramatically punish somewhere under this statute. Often, the prosecution is incapable of proving, not that the driver had some kind of drug in their system, but that it was the drug which “rendered the driver incapable of safely operating the vehicle.” That is a tough burden to meet and we have faith in juries not being able to make such a determination beyond a reasonable doubt in most cases. As such, we aggressively defend these types of charges and have a history of getting great results. Anyone charged under this “catch all” DUI statute in Utah should meet with one of our Provo DUI Defense Lawyers to get an accurate assessment of your defenses and options in the matter.
