There are two types of punishment the state can impose on a driver who allegedly operated a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol or a controlled substance – although not all controlled substances are viewed equally. In Minnesota, the state cannot revoke your license to drive (one type of punishment) based solely on a positive blood or urine test for marijuana under Minnesota’s Implied Consent laws. However, if a prosecutor charges you with the crime of driving while impaired (the second type of punishment) you will lose your license if convicted.

Minnesota has two methods of taking your license in this situation: through the Minnesota Implied Consent Act (civil driver’s license revocation) and as a direct consequence if you are convicted of a crime. 

Minnesota’s Implied Consent Act permits the state to revoke a driver’s license to drive when a driver’s alcohol concentration is .08 or more or when a blood or urine test detects any amount of most drugs or their metabolites, including prescription medications. As we discussed recently, the state may take the license even before the driver goes to court under the Implied Consent Act.

However, Minnesota treats marijuana differently from other drugs and alcohol. It cannot take away a person’s license to drive under this law when blood or urine tests detect the presence of marijuana under any circumstances.

So, in Minnesota, it is not, under the Implied Consent Laws, automatically a crime to drive a vehicle with marijuana in your blood or urine. Unlike other drugs, Minnesota does not make it a crime to have marijuana in a driver’s system – meaning that there is no “per se” limit for marijuana. While the legal driving limit for alcohol is .08, and any amount of methamphetamine will provide a basis to charge someone with DWI, there is no minimum (or even a maximum) amount of marijuana that you can have in your system before it is illegal to drive.

This isn’t to say you can feel free to toke up prior to driving, because it is still a crime to drive while “under the influence ” of marijuana. If a person is actually impaired by the use of marijuana at the time they are driving, they can and probably will be charged with DWI.  However, unless you plead guilty to such a charge, it is extremely difficult for a prosecutor in most cases to meet the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If the matter goes to a jury, a good defense attorney can often suppress the results of any blood or urine tests, as the scientific community is in agreement that evidence of prior marijuana consumption simply does not have any bearing on whether or not  someone was actually impaired by marijuana. And without those test results, the prosecutor’s case is usually pretty weak. While it is never a good idea to drive a vehicle while tired, texting, after consuming alcohol, or with any sort of “hard” narcotic in your system, Minnesota has crafted its laws in such a way so as to make it easier to avoid a license revocation for those drivers who may have recreationally used marijuana in the past (which, let me make clear, is a crime in Minnesota) but who were not impaired at the time they were actually driving.

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Mike Koneigs : I needed SR22 car insurance until last yearsince I had a DUI conviction. I dread the holiday season since I cannot stop myself. What are Sobriety Checkpoints? How many soberity points are there in a city?

Response : With the approach of the holiday season the chances of having good time and getting involved in DUI convictions increase. It also increases the risk for auto accidents and claims and hence the vigilance increases. I am sure that no one wants to be involved in an accident, be called a high risk driver, pay SR22 car insurance and so you would be taking precautions at your end.

The law enforcement authority has sobriety checkpoints which are a tool for preventing drunk driving and auto accidents. This team of law enforcement officers would stop vehicles or a specific sequence of motorist, at a predetermined location so that Sobriety Checkpoints. The main goal of this exercise is to increase the public alertness and awareness of being arrested for driving while impaired DWI or drunk driving, and detecting drivers who are impaired and arrest them. These operations as they are named as sobriety checkpoints are conducted by 4-6 officers. They would be mobile and will not continue the check at the same strategic point but change their location. Normally people would inform one another about the sobriety post and so this team is always mobile. Since soberity points are mobile one can never know how many points there are in a city.

This operation is designed to be set up in 15 minutes, taken down, and moved to another location. By completing this, motorists under the influence may see the sobriety checkpoint at one location and avoid this area in fear of being arrested. If the motorists later travel another road, they may encounter another checkpoint and later on another checkpoint on another roadway. Statistics from the Tennessee Checkpoint Operation have proven this a more effective way of discouraging motorists under the influence of drugs and alcohol to drive.

Soberity check points are useful for the SR22 car insurance since check points prevent you from driving while drunk and thus saves you from auto accidents and high car insurance rates. The non-drinkers are also helped since this will prevent them from high auto insurance by preventing auto insurance accidents since the chances of them being in an auto accident with a DWI driver are also high.
Stay safe and avoid drunk driving.
Happy Thanks giving.