When individuals take a drug knowing that there could be a risk if it is combined with alcohol, they can face charges or penalties for those actions. The combination of the two creates unsafe driving behavior or a situation where the person is now chargeable with DUID (driving under the influence of drugs).
There are certainly ways to defend against DUID charges with the help of an experienced drug DUI attorney. However, the Virginia drug DUI defense becomes more complicated if an individual made the conscious decision to take both medication and alcohol, as opposed to something that somebody put in their system without consent.
Involuntary intoxication could be a defense for a drug DUI but involuntary intoxication is hard to prove. That would be like in a situation where a person was given a date rape drug. That is something that a person has no control over and would not have taken willingly and then the person had no idea it was in their system and maybe it hit them all at once or if it is a situation where a person went ahead and they took something that had different side-effects that it was not supposed to have or that hit them differently. It may be important to the Virginia drug DUI defense to investigate whether the individual was aware of the risk when they took the medication.
They are going to respond by sometimes bringing in experts, sometimes by looking at the prescription information. Part of a Virginia drug DUI defense investigation will be seeking all warnings of risk. When a person gets a prescription over the counter, there is going to be a list of things that the person can and cannot do such as operating heavy machinery. These warnings are typically on the label of the medication. Drowsiness can be a side-effect caused by the prescription. The prosecution can introduce those types of pieces of evidence and let the judge read for themselves or the jury read for themselves what the person was told and what the person implicitly acknowledged by taking this.
Individuals agree to the law regarding refusal by driving on the Virginia road to submit to testing of breath if there is probable cause to arrest them. However, that only applies to cases of probable cause to arrest. If there is probable cause and the person refuses to give samples, the individual can also be charged with refusal which comes with a certain penalty. An attorney can review the facts to determine whether probable cause was warranted. If it was not, that can be used towards the Virginia drug DUI defense’s case. Typically, if the breath test is refused, the driver is charged with refusal and law enforcement seeks a search warrant for the person’s blood to be drawn and then tested for alcohol and drugs.