CARSON CITY, NV — Some Nevada lawmakers say medical marijuana patients shouldn’t be deemed impaired when driving just because they have small amounts of marijuana in their system.
The idea sparked intense debate Tuesday when Assembly Majority Leader William Horne, D-Las Vegas, presented Assembly Bill 351 to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
“Marijuana is currently the only drug we have a limit where we say, ‘you have this much, so you must be impaired,’” Horne told committee members. “I think that’s unfair.”
Under current law, drivers with a certain trace of marijuana in their blood are deemed impaired and are guilty of driving under the influence. The same concept applies to the blood alcohol content in drunken drivers.
This bill would remove the binding power of residual marijuana content for medical marijuana cardholders. Prosecutors could still use the blood test to augment their case, but further proof would have to be provided to show the driver was actually impaired.
“I don’t have a problem with the per se limits being there for everybody else,” Horne said. “What I am saying is, for a patient, those per say limits should not apply because we don’t apply them to any other drug.”
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