If you’re involved in a car accident, you have a lot to worry about. You’ve got your own injuries, the time you may miss from work, medical bills that might pop up, plus all the fuss and muss associated with dealing with your insurance company to get a new vehicle. If the other party is hurt, this just complicates matters even further, because you have to worry about the possibility of a future civil suit. Could the situation get any worse? Indeed, it could: if there’s one thing more problematic than car accidents, it’s marijuana related car accidents.
You Can Be Tested for Marijuana Without Consent
If you smoke marijuana and drive, there are certain things that you should know. To begin with, if you’re involved in a car accident in which someone else is injured, or if you yourself are hospitalized or sent to jail, then the police are authorized to take a blood sample from you without your consent. This blood sample can then be tested and if marijuana is found in your system, you’ll probably be charged with a DUI. At this point, a simple accident can lead to criminal charges.
Marijuana Could Entail a DUI Charge
If you’re at fault in an accident in which no one is injured, you typically get off with a ticket for careless driving. A DUI charge, however, is much more serious. Generally, your license will be suspended for a considerable amount of time, and you’ll often have to perform some kind of community service and undergo mandatory drug testing as well. Probation of a year or more is a pretty common result as well. Marijuana can be found in your system for weeks after you actually smoked it, but from the perspective of the police, that doesn’t matter at all – you will definitely have criminal charges filed against you.
This is a Situation for Your Attorney
This is where an attorney will come in handy. While you can often get away with handling a basic traffic ticket or fender bender on your own, the game changes totally when the police start talking about criminal charges. Therefore, if you’ve been blood tested and you suspect the results might come back positive for marijuana, you should consult the services of a qualified attorney immediately, as you’ll need their experienced representation in order to fight the charges.
