New Kent Drug DUI Tests
You can be charged with a DUI in New Kent for drug-related impairment. Drug DUIs are taken very seriously and charged accordingly. If you have concerns about testing for a DUID in New Kent and want to understand your rights, you should contact an experienced New Kent drug DUI lawyer as soon as possible.
Blood testing and preliminary field sobriety tests are going to be the main testing done for DUID in New Kent. If there is probable cause for an arrest and someone is asked to take a blood test, they cannot refuse that test without penalty of law, but there are several considerations to take when being tested that a lawyer will be able to help with to someone facing charges.
Implicated Drugs
There are a litany of drugs involved in drug DUI cases. Virginia statute lists drugs such as PCP, methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, MDMA, and marijuana. The most common drug anyone is going to be charged for driving under the influence of is marijuana.
On top of that, prescription drugs are going to be a person’s next common drug that anyone can see in a DUID case in New Kent, and subsequently tested for during a DUI arrest. A lot of times when the officers do not really know or if they take a person’s BAC and they cannot figure out what a person’s blood alcohol level is, through their observation and through questioning during their investigation, people readily admit to the use and ownership of these drugs because they may not have the understanding that this can lead to subsequent charges and get them in trouble.
Types of Tests
There are no breath tests for drug impairment in New Kent such as for alcohol-related offenses. There is not a preliminary breath test, and there is not a station test, which allows for officers to determine any kind of tainted blood because of a breath test. If they want to determine what, if any, substances are in a person’s system on a DUI drug case, then they must have the blood test. So, they must have a person’s blood drawn and tested at the lab.
Certain individuals who can administer blood tests are normally nurses, forensic scientists, and people approved by the Virginia code who are allowed to not only administer the blood test but also do the blood draw. There is also a specific code as to the manner in which the blood draws are done and if they are not done in the proper way, then the subsequent result of the test cannot be used be against a person in court.
Factors of Testing
Every jurisdiction is different but, normally, what a person is going to see is a 90-day turnaround on getting the results back from those tests.
Blood tests can pick up illegal and legal substances and even once they have picked them up, remember that a legal substance can still lead to an arrest. The substance does not have to be illegal in order to be arrested for a DUID for being on that substance.
Test Refusal
A person always has the right to refuse a DUID test in New Kent, such as a blood test. There is a recent law passed stating that officers need search warrants to enable them to take someone’s blood and implied consent is not applied to a blood test. However, with that being said, Virginia does have a statute that allows a person to be charged with a criminal offense or a civil penalty. If there is probable cause for an arrest for a DUI and a person refuses to take a breath or blood test, they may subsequently be charged with refusal.
On the first refusal charge, it is only a civil penalty and there are no criminal implications. However, on a second or subsequent, it becomes a class 1 misdemeanor and there are criminal implications to refuse a blood or breath test if there is probable cause to arrest them for a DUI. It can be challenged if an individual wants to challenge it or if those person ends up challenging the probable cause for an arrest. However, once again, if there is probable cause for an arrest, a person may refuse but if those persons refuse, they will be charged with another charge. A skilled DUID lawyer is essential to protecting someone’s rights during this time.
Accuracy of Tests
When performed properly and when done by the proper people and done by the book of the Department of Forensic Science, the drug test and the blood test are very accurate, and the courts rely on them heavily when determining guilt or innocence in a particular case.
If the procedures are not followed properly, then anyone can compromise the test. Once the test is compromised, those results can then subsequently be thrown out. There are also things that can be used to challenge, attack, or make the blood test wrong. These are things such as an unauthorized individual either drawing anyone’s blood or performing the test, such as using unsterile instruments for the blood draw, using the wrong cleaning solutions when taking the blood on the skin, and using unapproved or unsealed vials. These are going to be the proper way to challenge the blood test and the way the test was administered, the way the test was done, ultimately, keeping it out of court.
