A plan to legalize recreational marijuana leaves some Illinois lawmakers on a collision course with many cops and prosecutors tasked with catching stoned drivers.
“It’s a nightmare,” McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said of legislation under debate in Springfield. He and other local law enforcement experts worry legalization will embolden more people to drive while high and raise crash rates.
Proving a driver is impaired by marijuana beyond a reasonable doubt is no slam dunk for law enforcement.
While Breathalyzers provide an exact measurement of how drunk a driver is, “the technology doesn’t exist” yet for precisely capturing marijuana impairment, Kenneally contends.
And training officers to conduct flawless sobriety tests for weed or buying experimental pot-detection devices is expensive, police say.
“I think some of the lawmakers are out of touch with reality,” Des Plaines Police Chief Bill Kushner said.
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Related: “Legalize pot? No way, says leader of state police chief association”
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