.
The wrath! The righteous fury! Our Lou who wants to be our next AG, will not abide you smoking pot! (To left – the psychotic faux-bishop Ron Allen.)
Damn it, that lovable Democratic State Senator of ours, Lou Correa, just always HAS to go and do something to piss us off!
NOW, with his eye on the Attorney General’s race for 2018 and apparently hungry for law-enforcement and prison-guard union support, he’s re-introduced a bill that failed last year, which would criminalize you if you drove with any detectable marijuana in your system.
From the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert:
Prosecutors would have an easier time convicting people in California for driving under the influence of drugs if a bill Sen. Lou Correa has introduced becomes law.
Senate Bill 289 makes it a crime for anyone to drive if their system contains any detectable amount of drugs classified by the government as Schedule I, II, III or IV. That includes marijuana, amphetamines, steroids, tranquilizers and other drugs – but not drugs classified as Schedule V, like Tylenol with codeine, according to information from Correa’s office.
“We want to send a clear message that any level of being drugged is dangerous when driving, so the level should be zero,” Correa, D-Santa Ana, said during a Capitol press conference this morning introducing the bill.
“This is about keeping our streets safe about keeping our families safe. It took decades to pound into people that you should not drink and drive, that it is dangerous to drink and drive. Then we started talking about texting and talking on the phone and driving. And today, this is about being drugged and driving.”
The bill makes an exception for people who have prescriptions, including prescriptions for medical marijuana. Still, medical marijuana advocates came to Correa’s press conference to oppose the bill. They said the law should test for impairment, rather than the presence of drugs in the bloodstream.
“We don’t want to see drugged driving either, but we don’t want to see every patient in the state targeted,” said Lanette Davies, of Crusaders for Patients Rights.
SB 289 is a second attempt for Correa, who introduced a similar bill last year. SB 50 died in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. Correa has opened a campaign committee to raise money for a 2018 run for Attorney General.
Now, I think probably most of us grownups, whether we enjoy the weed are not, are perfectly aware that traces of marijuana (or “cannabinoids”) stay within your system for about thirty days. They’re not making you IMPARIED though! And – where’s the logic? It’s okay to drive with a drug in your system that impairs you if you have a PRESCRIPTION for it … but not if you decided to toke a joint with friends last week?
CSUF Professor Jonathan Taylor clarifies something important for you medical mj users:
“They won’t be considering cannabis as a valid prescription. what this means is you could take prescription valium or oxycodone or ambien even and drive legally but if you have any cannabinoids in your system you would be in violation of the law. And they do tend to stick around in the system for as long as 30 days is my understanding.”
This just doesn’t work for me, does it for you? An Attorney General for California, calling himself a Democrat, who wants to:
- Give the government even more opportunity to poke its nose into our private lives, and
- Make more of us criminals, and keep adding to our prison-industrial complex and overburdened court systems.
Lou’s not answering my calls today, but I’ll just say he’s on the WRONG side of history in multiple ways here. Recreational use of marijuana WILL be legal soon in California as it is in other states; it is more and more widely accepted. We have to CUT DOWN on the number of Californians we criminalize and incarcerate, not JACK IT UP. And law enforcement needs a way to determine if pot or other drug use is currently IMPAIRING a driver – not if they PARTOOK in the past month.
Bad, bad Lou. Give the guy a call: 916-651-4034; 714-558-4400. Or you might catch up with him at the LULAC event tonight, 6:30-9 at the Orange County LULAC Foundation Center, 11277 Garden Grove Blvd. Ste 101-A Garden Grove .
By the way that big bald black guy to Lou’s right in the pic above? That’s a real clownish character, a self-anointed “Bishop” from up in Sacramento, name of Ron Allen. We had him on our Orange Juice radio show back in ‘010 to rant the anti-pot rant against our libertarian hosts. The Daily Show had him on not long ago as well (see below) ; Lou’s scraping the barrel for allies on this…
All Lou wants to do is put people in jail for medical marijuana. Hes always been atagonistic to cannabis and he learned this method from the guys in washington state. he wants more money from police and prison guard unions who make millions from cannabis. Civil RICO is the word for this.
Potheads should stay home and enjoy their “high”.
Behind the wheel is another thing and someone with a prescription for a legal drug caught driving under the influence is also subject to arrest too.
This only makes the language clear.
@ cook – the bill that he is proprosing is that if marijuana is detected not if the person is high.
Marijuana stays in system far past the period of time that the high effects wear off. To avoid being convicted under this legislation you would have to stay home for 30-90 days after using cannabis whether you have a doctors recommendation or not because it is not a prescription and is on the california CSA.
and going by your logic, you also might want to make sure if you ‘borrow” a pain pill even tylenol #3 for a toothache, (which btw, is illegal to do but i know more than a few people who have done it over the years) that you wait it out at home a couple of days at least till it leaves your system.
The window for opiates and other drugs however, is far narrower (a few days usually) than it is for cannabis. Literally what this bill will do is punish people not for being impaired, but for using marijuana. and fyi, i think the language is very clear already as far as dui charges go – any substance that impairs your driving, makes you culpable under current law.
Cook – Read the article again. “Any detectable amount of drugs” could means days or even weeks after usage. Those people aren’t “high.” The people you are calling “potheads” (which could be people dying of AIDS or cancer or paraplegic veterans trying to relieve their suffering with a plant drug much less harmful than any synthetic pharmacological equivalent) will be rendered legally housebound if this insane law were to be passed.
Like all marijuana laws, this one is based in ignorance, prejudice, and law enforcement and prison guards’ greed. Cops want to keep marijuana illegal – not for any public safety reasons, but because it justifies their utterly ineffective counter-narcotics programs and all the cash they can suck off of the Feds (or taxpayers, depending on how you look at it). This is a pathetic excuse for a law and all you have to offer is a pathetic and stereotypical response.
Do you know how long cannabis metaboloids remain in the bloodstream in discernible levels, cook? Is that time period what you mean by being “under the influence”?
*We loved Cheech and Chong. Going down the freeway at eight miles an hour.
Cute……the van all filled with smoke and the girls with their tops coming off……
Those were the days…….alright. People even still hitch hiked on the freeways then too! 1965!!
Probably good to change to Correa Time since it is 2013!
No, Correa time was 19990-something. These days marijuana is practically legal; by the time he runs for AG it’ll be completely legal; people have to just not drive when they’re too stoned.
I love it when politicians decide to seize on an issue to burnish their credentials without actually learning the details of the issue. It often leads to hilarious faux pas like criminalizing behavior that occurred months before and could not have caused the safety violation as if it did cause the violation. We can see why Lou is a Democrat, this approach of his is fertile ground for lawyers.
I would rather see Lou’s considerable weight thrown behind finding both a current use test for the various drugs and also impairment studies that correlate to operating a motor vehicles for the various drugs, similar to what they have for alcohol. With the mandatory blood test on all suspected dui’s we can all expect to have our current prescription regimen as part of some official record, in some court house, some where. As a group I’m sure we would rather see efforts to improve public safety over efforts to appear to improve public safety.
The efforts in this case were inadequate.
I feel another resolution coming on.
it’s because of guys like lou that america became a once great nation,
our disgusted ancestors pulled up roots in places where his kind lived
this time, it’s these troublemakers who need to go,
the way his head reflects light, i suggest the dark side of the moon
Bad idea Lou, bad idea!
Driving while impaired, I’m ok with, I get that. But from what’s said here, even with an Rx you would have to stop medication for at least 30 days prior to its sunset date to be “drug free”, maybe longer. Get pain relief for 4 hours and can’t drive for a month? How the hell does that make any logical sense?
I also have issues with a forced blood/urine/breath/dna test for any offense.
There’s this thing called the 5th Amendment, in part which reads, “…nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,…” How does a sample not qualify here?
Then there is the 4th; “The right of the people to be secure in their PERSONS, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Sorry, but I get hung up on that darned thing, the Bill of Rights again…
I think that Lou would make a good CA AG – but his bill is kind of silly – and I have never ever … well, you know … I mean … voted for a dem – could be a first for me. Hi Lou!
Vern – I think that this bill of Lou’s is silly because the only thing that separates illegal pot use from legal pot use in CA is a $75 doc recommendation which ANYBODY can get.
Why is it that some of you people just have wood for anything that makes people feel better and want to stop it?
If you are impaired you shouldn’t drive, that’s already the law.
What is it that this bill would improve on?
NOTHING!
Come on Lou, you’re a good guy, think this thing through…
unintended consequences…
The ass clown known as Lou Correa gave an impassioned speech about immigration and the need to reform our current laws on immigration due ot the unjust nature of its application and the damage done to the individuals the families and in fact the very community and our country by way of unjust laws. In fact if you just inserted the word Marijuana in a you tube video of his speech and in fact all the speakers speeches, you would have the best set of arguments in favor of Marijuana law reform available.
This bill by Lou Coprrea is nothng less than a carefully planned attack on some oft he most vulnerable people in in our society. In our society we stand up to bullies because they are cowards. I pray that all who read this post stand up to that bully and coward Lou Correa.
Lou Correa is a Republican pretending to be a Democrat. He is the same guy who said he was running for office to make sure people would have access to healthcare and then when he was in ofice he had the balls to say healthcare in his district was not an issue, even though 25% of his constituenst don’t have health insurance! He got lots of $$$ from insurance towards his campaigns! Now he proposes this bill? He is a whore for special interest…plain and simple! Now if the cannabis clubs give him as much $$$ for his campaigns in the future like big pharma…he will probably change his view.
“makes it a crime for anyone to drive if their system contains any detectable amount of drugs classified by the government as Schedule I, II, III or IV.”
Ok I was wrong.
This would make it a crime to hold a hundred dollar bill in your bare hand. I have read that most hundred dollar bills are contaminated with “cocaine” and it can be absorbed into your system from these bills.
Should just stick to onsite police to make the call on “DUI” or just ban private automobiles outright.
Most of us don’t rub $100 bills all over our bodies, making the cocaine less likely to be absorbed. Surprising perhaps, but true!
I heard Paul and Mary Walters are sleeping on a bed of them these days!
Somebody better “swab” them.
will it work, if I use $1 bills?
“bills are contaminated with “cocaine” and it can be absorbed into your system from these bills.”
Urban myth. The absorption part.
If they can put a person in jail for DUI for Cannabis they ingestted weeks before a crash why shouldnt it be conceivable that you can absorb Cocaine from a 100 dollar bill? Oh yeah how many people have 100 bills to get cocaine on their fingers these days? Maybe we can ask Lou Correa for one that he gets form the Prison Guards and Cop unions eh?
Because of science…
The Argonne study is the first to demonstrate that if you handle contaminated bills, you won’t wind up with drugs on your hands. “It’s virtually impossible for cocaine to rub off”, Argonne chemist Jack Demirgian said.
The concentrations of drugs (cocaine, heroin, 6-acetylmorphine (also called “6-AM”), morphine, methamphetamine, amphetamine and phencyclidine (PCP)) are minute.
So quit licking your bills. People hide money in some very dirty places.
This reprehensible excuse for a human being needs a primary challenge.
I thought I posted this before, but must have been stoned……
“Nobody should be driving around under the influence of ANYTHING”
But, having read or reread (I can’t remember) the accompanying piece, I am reminded what a blowhard Lou Correa is. From the day he first knocked on the door looking for support to the cutting in line at SMF repeatedly (to the point where the SWA staff had a nickname for him) to foolishly taking the bait from the KFI morons.
The guy is not fit for office. Certainly not AG.
Hey – SWA? SMF? Explain please, we are not all such insiders as you!
How about driving under the influence of anger? The chemical substance I’m most afraid of on the freeways, other than alcohol, is excessive testosterone.
Vern,
Back in the day, I was a public school funding agent (sneaky way of saying lobbyist). We ran a great business out of Downtown Santa Ana, until a series of unfortunate events caused me to get a real job.
Anyway, My partner and I would fly to and from Sacramento (SMF) the only way we could: Southwest Airlines (SWA). We would fly on the OC-SAC flights three times a week. Correa was notorious for cutting in line in Sacramento (in those days you were hearded on to flights in a First Come First Served basis. More than once, i watched Lou arrive late and try to cut in.
I remember once, some good ol boy from Marysville, threaten to “put you on your ass in that suit”. It was great, this guy was taking his kids to disneyland or something and Correa arrogantly pushed his way in front of the cowboy and oh boy!
So that was the whole deal there.
Great side note: At the time I was a neighbor of Senator and Dianne Dunn. Our kds attended school together. My biggest customers were copier companies looking for ways to get $$$$$ to put equipment in schools (my specialty) So I have a high level executive from RICOH travelling with me and I see Joe in the terminal. Ever the politican he imediatley turns to the obvious important colleague with me and PUSHES HARD for support from the business community. My client, who happened to be an older Japanese female in a position of importance (rare) simply looked at him and said:
“I no waste time with vote and such things”.
He didn’t know whether to piss or cum. I was completely embarrassed on the surface and laughing on the inside.
Thats the SMF SWA explaination.
Giants 4 Angels 1 ! WBC (thats World Baseball Classic here we come!)
nameless – It’s only Spring Training.
LOL.
Lou came to Gus Ayer’s memorial at Mile Square Park yesterday. It’s nice that he came, but I don’t think many people saw him, as he didn’t come in far from the parking lot (as far as I know.)
I just happened to be wandering around after getting restless listening to great Gus stories for nearly two hours, and there was Lou! With his aide Tammy Tran, getting chewed out by someone I don’t know over precisely this bill. The guy said something about “privacy” and Lou started gesticulating angrily, saying something like “you give away all your privacy when you get behind the wheel!”
He glanced over and saw me standing there, but didn’t wave or give thumbs up like he usually does, just glowered. I imagine most people in the OC who know about this bill know about it from this story, which has got nearly a thousand hits, and he probably knows that.
Well, sorry. Maybe you should reconsider this churro, Lou?
I think that that may have been Jeff LeTourneau, Vern. This will come up at tonight’s DNOC meeting, but only for referral to the Resolutions committee that Jeff chairs. You can expect a nice resolution next month.
If Lou wanted his proposal to be excoriated by the party this month, he really should have done it at least a few days earlier. Give us time, man!
Personal to Tammy Tran: I hear wonderful things about you. If you come to the DNOC meeting tonight, you’ll be provided with a list of constitutional concerns that your boss couldn’t answer yesterday. Perhaps you can help us all by helping to pull him out of this hole. If not, well, he’ll be invited to the meeting next month.
You have to be shitting me.
The guy brought a political aide to a funeral????
Despite my earlier post, Lou is harmless enough (power stripped), but what a moron. THIS IS EXACTLY the kind of poor judgement, I was trying to exemplify with the John and Ken analogy: what kind of educated man would be stupid enough to tke these guys on with his kids in the car??
Lou Correa. Get a few suds in hima t a school event, nobody around (his sister in law makes fun of him) GREAT GUY: Chance to grandsatand: POLITICO ON TEROIDS. Make that ASSHOLE POLITICO ON STEROIDS.
In the more bad news department: It looks ike Jose Solorio is following his lead.
More and more the people that representus are only differentiated by the (misguided) people that support them and less by their actions.
I usually do not criticize without offering a solution.
Therefore, with my creator’s permission, I intent to run for the California Senate 34 district held by Correa and against the most eligible left-liberal-progressive-socialist Jose Solorio as Libertarian if I can collect 40-60 nomination signatures of voters, who truly believe that my candidacy would made a positive change on their life, starting sometime in the December 2013.
So, please pay attention to my political opinions so you can makeup your mine.
Caveat: I refuse to be politically correct!
Furthermore, I am not racist but in general, I do not like Zionists and their propaganda, so my candidacy wouldn’t benefit Jews!
In addition, I believe that two penises or vaginas can’t produce a future generation which I am concerned about so I believe that the same sex marriage is frivolous.
Other than that, I believe in the USA constitution including the non ratified Bill of rights and the Satan who may be my creator — who knows.
It is your call!
I say we start a drive to have Lou Correa censured and drummed out of the Democratic Party and set him free to join his repub cronnies.
When you pick up the papers, stop by and I will get you a few signatures.
Thanks!
We will have a signatory ball sometimes in December 2013 — including an unreasonable consumption of the finest Bohemian Plzeň beer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plze%C5%88
I should add that if your medical condition does not permit you to consume finest Bohemian alcoholic beverage you may bring with you, but not limited to, the medicinal ganja, cocaine, hash, heroin, LSD, mushrooms and peyote.
What ever keeps you spirituality healthy.
It is your unalienable right and I am going to the Sacramento to make sure that the left-liberal-progressive-socialists will not tread on it.
In addition, I plan to run based on referral bases only so I do not need to face corruption element of the politics.
So remember to send a word to your best friends like in the pyramid game.
Lou told me tonight that he is probably going to drop MaryJane from his bill.
Three cheers if that happens! One cheer for him, two cheers for grassroots pressure!
That would be smart. People did not seem impressed with the bill based on my description of it at last night’s DPOC meeting — and (after not letting on who had proposed it) I revealed that it was Lou Correa, there was much audible unhappiness.
If he responds like that, great. If so, he ought to thank Vern and me for heading that part off at the pass, but I’m not going to wait up for the call!
*Now what would Asa Hutchinson say? “Slow down you move to fast….you got to make the morning last….just skipping down those cobble stones…..feeling groovy!” …but Paul Simon already said it.