Our Denver Vehicular Crimes Attorney at The Law Office of Douglas Richards has experience dealing with cases relating to DUI, drunk driving, and other vehicular offenses.

“In Colorado and anywhere in the United States, it’s obviously illegal to
drive if you’re under the influence of alcohol if you have a 0.08 or more
or if they can prove that you’ve lost the normal use of your mental or
physical faculties due to consuming alcohol. It’s also illegal to operate a
motor vehicle if you’ve been consuming drugs.

Most people when they think of this, they think of, well, okay drug users,
illegal drug users or somebody who is on heroin or Oxycontin or roofies or
whatever they’re taking. That’s what most people are thinking when they
say, “Okay, yeah, it should be illegal to drive under the influence of
drugs.” But what they’re not considering is that this also includes drugs
that are legally prescribed to you by your physician.

So if your physician says, hey you need to start taking this medication to
help control your blood pressure or to help control anxiety or for whatever
reason or whatever ailment you’re being treated, if that causes you to lose
the normal use of your mental or physical faculties or makes it so that you
are less than able to operate a motor vehicle than a sober person would,
then you would be violating state laws even if the drugs are legally
prescribed to you by a physician that’s caring for you.

So it’s very important that you understand what it is you’re taking and how
it affects you, and if it affects you to such a degree that you can’t
safely operate a motor vehicle, you shouldn’t be driving, because I can
guarantee you the state of Colorado will prosecute you for it and I have a
number of clients you can talk to you about that.”