Drug and alcohol abuse redefined as appellate court raises the bar

Recent news has been covering a case in New Jersey involving a man who had his driver’s license suspended for two years, was fined several hundred dollars, and was sentenced to 30 days community service for driving under the influence of cocaine - despite the fact that he was not high. The case was appealed and the ruling upheld. The appeal set a precedent for cases involved ‘drug hangover’ - all the more reason why someone with a drug or alcohol problem should get through a drug detox and a successful drug rehab program.

The appellate court upheld the decision based on a blood test that revealed the presence of a by-product of cocaine metabolism known as benzolectamine. In the case of cocaine, this by-product stays in the system for up to 30 days but habitual or chronic use of cocaine can be detected for up to three months.

The same is true of many other drugs. And, really, the only way to get them out of your system once and for all is a good drug detox followed by a successful drug rehab program that really gets down to the bottom of why you’re taking drugs or drinking in the first place, and stop taking them.

The man’s attorney was up in arms over the ruling: "It's not a big step from there to the guy who drinks 10 beers on a Friday night, gets in a car on Saturday to go to the store and is pulled over," he said. "He blows under the legal limit (on the Breathalyzer), but he could be convicted of drunk driving if he's hung over. That's where I think there is the potential for huge consequences to come of this."

That’s right. There are huge consequences. And most of them are positive:

It could encourage friends and family of binge drinkers and occasional drug users to get them into alcohol and drug detox before they kill themselves or someone else.

It could reduce the number of Americans that meet the criteria for alcohol abusers – now at the 14 million mark.

It could get more people who are already suffering from drug addiction and alcoholism into drug detox and drug rehab to help them handle their problem.

And so it goes - on, and on, and on. It might even put the brakes on our current fast track to a drugged society. Yes, huge consequences.

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