For decades, alleged drunk drivers have claimed that they didn’t mean to drink and that someone must have spiked their drink. The counter to this, in many cases, is that detractors say they should have known they were drinking alcohol because it has such an obvious taste.
With the increased interest in marijuana-infused edibles, we could be looking at the next iteration of this same problem. After all, edibles often look and taste like candy, chocolates, cookies, and many other deserts. If you grab a handful of candy for a snack at a party, do you really know if any of those candies contain marijuana? You may not taste the cannabis as you eat them, despite ingesting plenty of THC and making it unsafe to drive.
Edibles also take some time to affect you
A related issue is that edibles may not affect the way you feel for 30 to 60 minutes. In some cases, the packaging warns that it could take two hours for the psychotropic effects to kick in.
Imagine a scenario where someone gives you what you think is a piece of candy. You eat it with a handful of other snacks and have no idea it was a marijuana edible. Twenty minutes later, you get in the car to drive home, not knowing you’ve consumed anything out of the ordinary.
On that drive, though, the edible finally kicks in and you get arrested for impaired driving. If anything, your high keeps getting more intense while you talk with police, so they think you were heavily impaired behind the wheel.
If a mistake like this leads to an arrest, be sure you know what legal defense options you have at your disposal. Drugged driving is a serious charge that could have long-lasting implications for your future, so a concentrated defense is wisest.