A Cannabis DUI: Completely Avoidable Consequences

If you choose to drive while impaired, you are putting yourself at significant legal risk and liability. It is a myth that driving under the influence is legal, safer, or less risky than driving while drunk.

Watch the video and hear directly from the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office about the legal consequences of driving while high.

These are the facts:

• If you are high, get in an accident, and someone gets hurt, you could go to prison for up to 12 years. If someone dies, your sentence can be as long as 14 years.
• If you are driving under the influence and cannot safely operate your vehicle, you can be charged and convicted of a DUI. Because if you’re high, it’s still a DUI.

This is the law:

• Under state law, it is illegal to drive a car if you have consumed a product that “renders the person incapable of safely driving.”
• It is illegal for any driver or passenger to use cannabis in a vehicle.
• If you are pulled over for your driving and the police suspect you are under the influence, they can administer field sobriety testing and/or validated roadside chemical tests.

Did you know:

• In Illinois, Implied Consent is the law: a driver automatically consents to submit to certain tests, including breath, blood, or urine tests, to determine whether they are driving under the influence. Refusal to submit to testing or failing the tests will result in the suspension of your driver’s license.

Illegal Transportation/Open Container Laws: You’ll lose your license if you’re under 21

• Everyone knows it’s illegal, dangerous and stupid to have an open container of alcohol in your car. The same is true for cannabis.
• Cannabis must be in a secured, sealed, or resealable, odor-proof, child-resistant cannabis container that is inaccessible. If the offender is under the age of 21, there is a mandatory suspension of driving privileges for 1 year for a first offense.