Xanax passes marijuana as second-leading cause of DUI

a reply to: seeker1963
I'm 100% with you. I'm no expert but I'm willing to say dui's are LE number one source of income I not close. My brother got a dui years back and I went through every step with him. When I heard the judge hand down the verdict it was insane all the fees he kept saying, it went on for 5 minutes. Then there's probation in top of that, and if all the fees aren't paid in a year then back to jail and guess whats next??? More fees for not having enough money. It makes no sense.

That's the year me and my brother learned something we will never forget. ITS JUST A BIG MONEY GAME. Especially duis.

Mail order drugs and pizza is the solution. Remove the need to drive, and see DUI go down dramatically. Xanax, Oxy, Methadone... legalize it all. Make it mail order. Tax it. Give out Pizza coupons. You'll see DUI go down dramatically. Then finally, let Darwin take over. That philosophy is perfect for such a scenario.

a reply to: Sremmos80

Thanks for your reply. You are right. I take my medicine within a 15 minute window everyday, and it has completely changed my life. They do make these medications for a reason because people do need them. Its the abusers that cause alot of problems for people like me.alot more problems than just duis. There is definitely a stigma on these meds and because of the abusers I feel like I'm looked at like a pos. But at least I get to watch my son grow up and be part of his life and not have to worry about having a grand mal and never waking up and my son growing up fatherless.

a reply to: seeker1963

I agree with you, I take Xanex as prescribed and I don't want to get a DUI just for doing what I'm supposed to be doing!I take it for really bad anxiety.

a reply to: onequestion

Well, I found this to be mind blowing. I had no idea that marijuana was the leading cause of DUI.

I don't think it was. Your title said it passed marijuana to become the second leading cause of DUI.

So I think the first one is still alcohol.

a reply to: seeker1963

Because the Motor Vehicle Laws trump your prescription bottle warning.

a reply to: onequestion

From the source you posted:

Alprazolam, the generic name for the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, surpassed marijuana in 2011 as the second-leading cause of impaired driving in Alabama after alcohol, according to data from traffic stops compiled by the Department of Forensic Science. The data did not include car crashes, but Curt Harper, toxicology discipline chief for the Alabama Department of Forensic Science, said he believed those figures would be similar.

I take that to mean that alcohol is the leading cause of DUI in Alabama and Xanax has beat out MJ for second place, being a factor in 29% of the DUIs as compared to MJ being involved in 23% of the cases.

Of course it's a scam to generate more revenue. If you are "impaired" as defined by some legal statue, you will need all sorts of expensive counseling and behavior modifications classes. These classes are offered by the prosecutor or the judge's old frat buddy or brother-in-law and you are ordered to them by the judge.

The cops love the scam 'cause it gives them revenue.
The prosecutors and judges love it for the same reason.
The legal scum love it for the cash flow.
The insurance companies love it because they can radically hike your insurance rates.
The behavior modifying lobby loves it because they live off this stuff. A good 90% of them would be out of business if some government agency weren't forcing clients to pay the bills.

Even if the drug is legally prescribed, because each human body is different, it can cause different reactions. One of those reactions might be that the prescribed dose causes impairment. I don't think the statutes make a distinction between legal impairment and illegal impairment.
The figures I'd be interested in seeing are the ones from cases that involved both alcohol and prescription drugs. But apparently, from what I can read in that article, if they blow high on the breathalyzer, they rely on that single factor so no cross-over statistics on alcohol/prescription drugs are available.
It seems that the cases included in this study were of people who didn't blow as drunk but were obviously impaired.
Alcohol is know to boost the effects of many anti-anxiety drugs as well as produce unforeseen behavior.

Xanax is extremely dangerous and highly addictive, Weed is Neither.

Drs, should be fined and imprisoned for prescribing these drugs if their patients are being fined and jailed for using them

One more. I read in a medical magazine in the doctor's office an interesting topic. The article stated a high percentage of DUI arrests are mistakes due to the person being a diabetic. That having diabetes and taking certain diabetes medications threw a breath test off. Seems the body produces certain enzymes that per the breath test causes the test to come back with a high alcohol content whether or not the person has even drank anything at all. SO if I am ever pulled over , I will only take a blood test.

originally posted by: pryingopen3rdeye
a reply to: onequestion


xanax on the other hand is out of your system in a day, two tops....

Ummm.......No.

Benzos can stay in your system, and test positive as much as a week or more after taking.

Depending on circumstances.

a reply to: 772STi

One thing with many drugs is that if a person has a genuine need to be taking it then they do not have the same effect as taking it recreationally. Instead of a buzz the user just becomes more moderate in their health.

I've thought this is a reality we're dealing with for awhile now, and not just xanax either.

Every single day I see drivers doing things I've never seen before, there's an aloofness about them, oblivious to their surroundings in the maneuvers they make. Others just seem like they're zombies behind the wheel, going below the speed limit in the left lanes while completely oblivious to the fact they're holding up traffic and causing dozens of cars to merge around them, a serious risk for anyone who's looked at threats of safety on the road.

And cell phones are not the cause of much of this. They are some, obviously, but I often pass these fools and they have both hands on the wheel and attention on the road. So that leaves the other possibility to be intoxication.

US citizens are taking an enormous amount of meds which alter the way they think, ever single day. I worked in an industry where clients had to let me know which mids they were one and I'd say roughly 80% of the people I dealt with were on some form of medication. Not just xanax but various pain meds and anti-depressants as well. The pain meds obviously can give you a high feeling and alter your sense of your surroundings. Anyone who's taken something like vicodin is aware of that. Anti-depressants also alter your perception, if at the least making you too care free.

Our roads are full of medicated zombies. I worry about that far more than the rare drunk driver as there's far more drivers you'll come across who've popped meds during the day than those who were drinking in the middle of the day at a bar and decided to get behind the wheel.

I live in Los Angeles so I've seen some pretty crazy driving. Unfathomable speeding from the cokeheads, lethargic listlessness from the potheads, and some drivers doing maneuvers that can only be explained with bath salts hahaha! People sometimes forget that we're operating potentially dangerous machinery when we get behind the wheel. Even sleep deprivation is an issue. If people popping Xanax is putting others at risk, then I'm glad they're getting DUIs.