NBC Connecticut Chief Investigator Len Besthoff discusses his recent piece on Driving While High and why Connecticut’s law about driving under the influence of cannabis is complicated.
Mike Hydeck: In a matter of months retail marijuana shops will be open for business throughout Connecticut. And just like alcohol and other substances, pot can impair your ability to drive safely. But how much is too much? Well, that really hasn't been determined yet. But why? Chief Investigator Len Besthoff and Investigative Producer Katherine Loy have been digging into the details on this for months. Len, welcome. Good to see you. Let's dig into the very first question on this. Why doesn't Connecticut have a legal limit for THC. We know the one for alcohol, right?
Len Besthoff: It's very elusive when it comes to cannabis versus alcohol in terms of the measurement. You're measuring and what are called nanograms per microliter to begin with, a very small amount of substance or whatever detectable inebriants, for lack of a better term. And some states test blood, we don't test blood. Some states test urine. We test urine, but the problem with urine is it's in your system potentially for a month or longer. Blood, it goes away right away. And we don't generally test blood here. So they're having trouble figuring out well, how do we do this, and they haven't gotten to that yet.
Mike Hydeck: So you could have had some sort of cannabis a month ago still in your system and it had nothing to do with your driver impairment so it's hard to test for.
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Len Besthoff: Exactly.
Mike Hydeck: Alright. So what determines if a driver is impaired? And is it going to hold up in court? Say, all of a sudden I am impaired and I'm pulled over and they suspect it's cannabis. Can I fight it in court? You know, effectively, do we think?
Len Besthoff: You can fight it, but Connecticut has what are called Drug Recognition Experts. There's a growing fleet of these people that are going to be out there with respect to police departments. They're getting training right now. They can look at all different kinds of factors to determine if you have been using it. If they believe you have, they bring you to a controlled situation after you've been arrested where there's one of these drug recognition experts who tries to determine that. There are about 45 in the state right now at local and state law enforcement agencies and they're training more as we speak.
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Mike Hydeck: Do they talk about the same sort of tests that you do for drunk driving? Walk in a line, those kinds of things? Or is it something else?
Len Besthoff: No, sometimes it's similar things to that, but they're testing different things. They might be testing how well do you remember what they just told you to do?
Mike Hydeck: Okay, alright. So police are urging people not to drive after using cannabis. What about other people in the car? I just learned this from one of your reports recently. It's okay to drink if you're a passenger, but is that the case with pot?
Len Besthoff: That is not the case. We do have an open container law in Connecticut. So if you're my passenger, you could have an open container of alcohol. However, you cannot ingest, inhale or in any way smoke cannabis in a vehicle. Although let's face it, when you're driving on the highway, you do smell cars that have it.
Mike Hydeck: Len Besthoff, thank you so much for your reporting, Chief Investigator. And to see more of how many lives are impacted while driving high, from losing a family member in an accident to the challenge police continue to face, check out Katherine and Len's full story here.
