US CO: Prosecutor Seeks Pot-Intoxication Standard



Pubdate: 28 Jan 1999 



Source: Denver Post (CO) 



Author: Kirk Mitchell 	



ubject: PROSECUTOR SEEKS POT-INTOXICATION STANDARD 	



Jan. 28 - A Genesee man who allegedly killed three people in a car accident while high on 

marijuana will get a reduced sentence today because it's difficult to prove that mood-altering drugs 

impair drivers, a prosecutor said. 	



Jay Tankersley, 21, of Genesee, was originally charged with three counts of vehicular homicide 

and one count of vehicular assault in connection with the 1997 accident.	



But the charge was reduced to one count of negligent homicide, and Tankersley will be offered 

probation and a maximum of 90 days in jail or two years on work or education release, said Jeff 

Lindsey, deputy district attorney in the 11th Judicial District.	



Tankersley is set for sentencing today in Chaffee County District Court in Salida.	



Lindsey said the hurdles he faced in prosecuting Tankersley expose problems that will continue 

unless the Legislature clarifies the law or better tests are developed to prove the correlation 

between levels of marijuana in the blood and driving impairment.	



While tests can directly correlate bloodalcohol levels to driving impairment, that can't be done with 

marijuana. 	



That's a major problems in cases such as Tankersley's where the suspect is injured and can't submit 

to a roadside sobriety test, Lindsey said. Also traces of marijuana can remain in the system for 

months, so it's difficult to prove whether the suspect was impaired at the time of the accident. 	



The state's current law makes driving under the influence of marijuana illegal, but it doesn't set a 

blood content limit as in alcohol-intoxication cases. Because of that, Lindsey said, the judge in 

Tankersley's case rejected testimony that Tankersley's marijuana use had impaired his driving.	



Laurel Farrell, a forensic toxicologist for the Colorado Department of Public Health and 

Environment, said several states and countries have set marijuanaintoxication levels.	



While the testing is less clear than it is for alcohol, scientists can determine whether the amount of 

marijuana was high enough to impair driving, she said.	



"We need to do a better job of educating judges about what it can tell us and what its limitations 

are,'' she said. 	



But Tankersley's attorney, Lee Foreman, said if the science is shaky it shouldn't be used to hammer 

his client.	



"People shouldn't be convicted by science when the science isn't good enough,'' Foreman said.	



There is little dispute over whether Tankersley had been smoking marijuana on July 17, 1997, 

when the accident happened; at issue is whether it caused the crash, Lindsey said.	



Colorado should consider a law that automatically raises penalties for having marijuana in the 

system and causing a traffic accident. 	



But Foreman said state laws already penalize people for driving under the influence of alcohol or 

drugs. He questioned the need for a new law penalizing someone for marijuana use when the 

drug's impact on an accident is uncertain.	



Foreman said his client was negligent but not guilty of vehicular homicide. 	



Witnesses at Tankersley's preliminary hearing testified that he took two or three drags on a 

marijuana bong on the morning of July 17, 1997, and inhaled again at about 4 p.m., five hours 

before the accident, Foreman said. 	



Nearly all experts agree that a marijuana high wears off after two or three hours, he said.	



Tankersley was driving north on Colorado 24 about 7 miles out of Buena Vista when he drove into 

the oncoming lane, hitting a car driven by Curtis Harrison, 50. Harrison was heading southbound 

on his way back to New Mexico after picking up his 21-year-old son, Jeff, in Wyoming. Also in 

the car was Curtis Harrison's 9-year-old grandson, John Pinto Jr. 	



The crash severely injured Jeff Harrison and killed Curtis Harrison, Pinto and a passenger in 

Tankersley's car, Justin DeSorrento, 20, of Genesee.