Removing the "high" from the highways : the impact of Virginia's efforts to combat drug-related DUI.

Jernigan, Jack D · 1992 · ROSA P / Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC)

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Summary

This study evaluates the impact of Virginia’s 1988 legislative revision and the concurrent pilot Drug Recognition Technician (DRT) program on drug-related driving under the influence (DUI). Prior to 1988, Virginia law prohibited testing for drugs, resulting in very few convictions for drug-impaired driving. The revised law authorized police to require blood samples from suspects, even after breath tests, while the DRT program trained officers to identify impairment signs associated with seven drug categories. The research aimed to determine if these interventions increased arrests and convictions for drug-related DUI and whether they produced a spillover effect on alcohol-related DUI metrics and traffic safety outcomes. The methodology analyzed data from April 1988 through December 1990, focusing on low-BAC cases (BAC < 0.10% or no alcohol detected) to isolate drug-related impairment from alcohol-related per se violations. Data were sourced from the Division of Forensic Sciences (DFS) for laboratory results and court records or officer interviews for judicial resolutions. The study compared DRT-involved cases against non-DRT cases and examined trends across pilot jurisdictions (Charlottesville, Virginia Beach, Virginia State Police) and non-pilot areas. Statistical analyses included cross-tabulations and t-tests to assess significant relationships between year, agency, laboratory results, and conviction rates, as well as changes in alcohol-related arrest and crash rates between 1986 and 1990. The findings indicate that drug-related DUI arrests increased in 1988 but declined in subsequent years, with DRT involvement dropping from 25.7% of low-BAC cases in 1988 to 14.5% in 1990. Conviction rates for drug-related cases remained stable overall, ranging from 40% to 70% when drugs were detected, compared to less than 25% when no drugs were found. Notably, DRT cases were no more likely to result in a conviction than non-DRT cases; however, DRT cases involving marijuana or cocaine had higher conviction rates than non-DRT cases for those specific drugs. The study found no evidence that the revised law or DRT program reduced alcohol-related injury or fatality rates, although alcohol-related injury rates declined significantly in both DRT and non-DRT jurisdictions. There was some evidence that the DRT program positively influenced alcohol-related DUI arrest rates in pilot jurisdictions. The study concludes that while the legislative change and DRT program successfully increased the identification and arrest of drug-impaired drivers, they did not demonstrably improve conviction rates or reduce traffic fatalities. The author suggests that the lack of presumptive impairment levels for drugs and the complexity of prosecuting cases without clear chemical thresholds hindered effectiveness. Recommendations include better officer training, faster laboratory results, and potential legislative changes to establish presumptive impairment levels or internal possession laws. The research highlights the challenges of enforcing drug-related DUI laws in the absence of standardized impairment metrics comparable to blood alcohol concentration.

Key finding

Drug-related DUI conviction rates remained stable at approximately 40% regardless of DRT involvement, with conviction likelihood heavily dependent on the presence of detected drugs rather than officer training.

Methodology

dataset

Sample size: 1199

Provenance

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Topics

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• dui enforcement
• illicit drugs
• drowsy as impairment
• polydrug

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation