Common Medications That Still Fall Under DUI Laws

When most people think of DUI arrests, they are thinking of hardcore street drugs and alcohol. They are not thinking about any other medications. However, there are several other common medications that may get you arrested if a police officer pulls you over and decides that you may be "under the influence."

Adult Cough Medicine

The whole point of adult cough medicine is to relieve symptoms and put you to sleep. Taking a drive after taking a dose of cough syrup can result in a DUI because there is alcohol in most adult cough syrups. Additionally, if the cough syrup begins to work its sleep magic on you, you may do a little swerving on the road that looks an awful lot like the driving of someone who has had too much. 

Antihistamines

It is funny; give a kid an antihistamine for allergies, he/she bounces off the wall. Give an adult an antihistamine--well, the result is not so funny when you are driving. You fall asleep and crash into somebody or someone. Now your allergy medication is the reason why you face DUI charges. Maybe you should have asked your allergist for the non-drowsy formula of your medication...

Sleep Medications

Sleep medications like zolpidem (marketed as Ambien) and a few others have some extremely unusual and very dangerous side effects. People have been known to do everything from walk to the corner store in the wee hours of the morning to drive while they are fully asleep and on these medications. Many times, people who "sleep-drove" on these drugs crashed, sometimes seriously hurting themselves and others. If this applies to you, it has no doubt been a very terrifying experience, but it is even worse when you finally wake up and find yourself in a jail cell for a DUI.

How Your DUI Attorney Will Handle Your Situation

As long as no one else was hurt during your drive and subsequent arrest, your lawyer can ask for a fine and/or probation or community service. It also helps if you stop taking sleep medications with dangerous side effects or medications that make you too drowsy to drive. Then that helps your case because your lawyer can show that you will not be "sleep-driving" anytime soon. If you have to take antihistamines and/or cough syrup, be sure that you take them when you are home for the night. If you promise the judge that you have learned your lesson where these common medicines are concerned, that also looks favorably on you.

Talk to a DUI attorney services law firm for more information.


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