New York DWAI
Driving While Ability Impaired by Drugs

Driving While Ability Impaired by Drugs (“DWAI-Drugs”) and Driving While Ability Impaired by the Combined Influence of Alcohol and Drugs (“DWAI-A/D”).

A person can be convicted of a DWAI-Drugs if they are found to have been driving while their ability to do so is “impaired” as a matter of law by a drug, whether the drug is technically legal or illegal to possess or ingest, and whether prescribed or not.  However, the particular impairing “drug” must be listed as a “controlled substance” under the New York State Public Health Law.  As a result, though some motorists may have been impaired by what they consider to be a “drug” at the time of driving, impairment by some “drugs” may not establish a violation of the law for purposes of DWAI-Drugs.

In addition to DWAI-Drugs, a new law has passed making it illegal for a person to operate a motor vehicle while “impaired” by either more than one “drug” or by the combined influence of alcohol and any drug or drugs.  This new law is entitled “Driving While Ability Impaired by the Combined Influence of Drugs or of Alcohol and any Drug or Drugs” (DWAI-A/D”). 

Interestingly, though DWAI-Drugs is targeted specifically at those drugs listed under the Public Health Law as “controlled substances,” DWAI-A/D makes no such distinction. 

You need an attorney familiar enough with the law of DWAI-Drugs and the new law of DWAI-A/D, with the methods of measuring impairment, and with the sciences of measuring drugs and alcohol in a person’s body, to be able to fully and intelligently defend you, and help you make the best decisions for your particular case and situation. 

Contact us right away for a FREE consultation.