Oklahoma Lawmakers Present Study on Drug Impairment While Driving

OKLAHOMA CITY — Sen. Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City, and Sen. Cody Rogers, R-Tulsa, presented an interim study to the Senate Public Safety Committee examining issues related to testing for driving under the influence of drugs on Monday.

The study was held at the Capitol.

FOX23 spoke with Brooks about the study.

He said it's been interesting to see where we stand on the standards to identify impairment and the standards to decide whether or not to file charges, especially with medical marijuana being so prevalent right now. 

Coordinator for Drug Recognition Program David Roberts presented questions he recently received about the study.

He said one of these questions was whether or not the state is encountering challenges prosecuting marijuana impaired drivers.

Roberts said he reached out to the bigger counties of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Cleveland and did not get an answer. He said he was able to speak with the DAC, who confirmed their prosecutors are in fact having challenges with these cases and it's more on the level when a jury pull or the public are involved.

He also said the common opinion from the public is that marijuana isn't impairing and they don't believe it causes a problem.

Nationally, one percent of law enforcement receive the DRE certification, but currently they have a drive going on to increase officers across the state giving them more information on how to detect impaired driving, according to Roberts.

"It’s critical that an officer has observable impairment," Roberts said. There are five violations that go with a DUI investigation in a perfect scenario, he announced. 1. Officer makes the stop.2. The officer makes contact.3. Field sobriety testing and totality of circumstances4. The officers send them on their way or make an arrest.5. If the officer makes an arrest, an Implied Consent advisory is read, and a refusal or chemical test is conducted. Roberts said currently there is not a machine to show a certain dosage that implies impairment, so they still need officers to observe that impairment. He said the best practices right now are qualitative tests plus the training of officers with the drug recognition experience.  Brooks said they should advocate for more resources to receive the training, but for now the best tool for getting drug impaired drivers off the road will continue to be the field sobriety test officers are already trained to perform.