Legal Marijuana & DUI - Don’t Consume & Drive Although the recreational use of marijuana is increasingly becoming legal across the US, you can still be arrested for driving under the influence. And while there is currently no breath-test like there is for alcohol, law enforcement organizations are keeping highly trained to detect usage and want you to stay safe on the roads. We get the details on marijuana and DUI from California Highway Patrol, Sergeant Oscar Chavez, in this iDriveSoCal Podcast. ***Transcript*** Recording date – April 11, 2018 in Santa Fe Springs, CA Oscar Chavez: If you're going to be taking part in using cannabis, do it responsibly. Don't drive. With alcohol, there's a predictable level of how quickly it's going to rise on somebody. With cannabis, we have to take into consideration the user. Are they a long time user, short time user. We have to take into consideration on how they ingest it. Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States, southern California. I'm Tom Smith and today I am in Santa Fe Springs, California and I'm joined by Sergeant Oscar Chavez of the California highway patrol's impaired driving section. Sergeant, thank you so much for joining me. Oscar Chavez: Sure. Absolutely. Tom Smith: The topic today is marijuana as it pertains to DUIs, now that it's legal, things have changed or at least it would seem they've changed, maybe they haven't, but that's what we're going to talk about. When did marijuana officially become legal here in California? Oscar Chavez: As of this year, beginning in 2018 of this year, it became legal to purchase as well as to sell cannabis to the general public. Tom Smith: As of January 1st of this year? Oscar Chavez: That's correct. Yes. Tom Smith: So there was the medicinal use before the complete legalization, so are all those, and I'm not sure if you know the answer to this question, but are all those shops that were medicinal, now are they just automatically able to sell to anybody? Oscar Chavez: Not exactly. Those medicinal shops will still be open. They still have to abide by the old or the current laws. Tom Smith: Then as far as the shops are concerned, they have basically two different sets of guidelines that they need to and probably some kind of permission for medicinal as well as the recreational. Oscar Chavez: Yes. That's correct. Tom Smith: Then how was the California highway patrol directed to handle marijuana related issues leading up to the legalization? To be specific, before January 1st, 2018. Oscar Chavez: Well, all through 2017, the California highway patrol took a strong view into training. Training our officers to making sure that we're able to identify someone under the influence of cannabis. All our officers, when it comes to CHP, officers are all trained to be SFSD trained to recognize. They all get 52 hours of training. Tom Smith: SFSE? Oscar Chavez: Yes. I'm sorry. That's standardized field sobriety test training. Tom Smith: Oh okay. Standardized field sobriety test training. Got it. Oscar Chavez: The department actively make sure that all our officers by the end of 2017 were trained in what's called aride, or advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement. Tom Smith: Okay. Arad? Oscar Chavez: Aride. Tom Smith: Aride? Oscar Chavez: Ride. Yes. So it's advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement, and what that course is a two day course, 16 hour course, which we train our officers on recognizing not only signs, not only re emphasize the signs of impairment of alcohol, but to also emphasize the signs of impairment of...
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