Missouri’s Driving-Under-the-Influence law appears to have a big hole in it…..because it doesn’t cover all of the “influences.” House Transportation chairman Neil St. Onge says he was “kind of shocked” to learn from a Kansas City Star reporter that the state’s DUI law does not cover drivers under the influence of drugs. St. Onge is sure the legislature will move to close that loophole next year. The big question is how the legislature will establish a blood-drug level such as the blood-alcohol level for drunk driving. He says he has read that marijuana can stay in a person’s system for a month, meaning a trace in a person’s blood would not be enough to prove a person is driving under the influence of drugs. St. Onge assumes other states have set standards. He also thinks some standards exist in Missouri’s worker’s comp law and might exist in unemployment law. If history is a guide, however, passage of a DUI law for drugs might not be a given. It took several years to get the point-zero-eight drunk driving law through the general assembly.
