Milstead: Arizona ruling on marijuana extracts doesn’t change DUI laws

PHOENIX — The director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety says the state Supreme Court’s recent ruling that patients with medical marijuana cards can’t be arrested for possessing cannabis extracts doesn’t change DUI laws.

“It is a daily issue for our troopers out there. They’re finding people out there who are impaired,” Col. Frank Milstead told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Bruce St. James & Pamela Hughes Show on Friday. 

“Just because the Supreme Court said you can now possess those with your medical marijuana card, it does not mean that you can drive impaired or drive under the influence of those.”

The unanimous ruling reversed a lower-court decision that found cardholders faced arrest for hashish possession because the drug isn’t named in the state’s 2010 voter-approved medical pot law.

The court’s interpretation now lets medical marijuana patients use the drug to treat debilitating medical conditions in whatever form best suits them.

Milstead said marijuana is like alcohol in the way that people react differently to it, but he said any amount of it in a person’s system while driving is illegal.

“You can actually have a drink for social benefit or enjoy the taste and not be impaired or drunk, but marijuana’s going to make you high,” he said.

“If you’re doing marijuana in any form, you shouldn’t be driving your car.”