DWI in Texas: Can you get a DWI from Prescription Drugs in Texas (No Alcohol DWIs - Drugged Driving)

In Texas, DWI laws are changing each year, often to make penalties and punishments more sever for DWI offenders, as well as creating more ways for law enforcement to make arrests.  I often receive calls about DWI arrests where no alcohol was involved -- but instead, the person was arrested for DWI based on a Prescription Medication.

Lunesta is one of the most common I see, although many other narcotics -- all legal with prescription -- have led to arrests and in many cases, convictions for DWI.

Texas Law specifically states, "

"Intoxicated" means: not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties by reason of the introduction of alcohol, a controlled substance, a drug, a dangerous drug, a combination of two or more of those substances, or any other substance into the body."

Which means, DWI's are not limited to alcohol any longer, and include drugs -- even a legal, prescribed medication.

However, a non-alcohol DWI is far harder to prove than alcohol DWIs.  First, the prosecutors won't have much to go on if they don't test your blood, and I've seen many cases where blood is not tested.  Without blood results (which would show traces and potentially, depending on the test, the metabolites of the drug in your system) then the prosecutors must attempt to prove the case on circumstantial evidence.  They'll show that you were on a medication, or admitted to being on a prescription at the time of driving, and will point to driving errors or errors on the field sobriety tests to show impairment.

There is no legal limit, in terms of a numerical value, for medication DWI.  In other words, while it's prohibited to drive with more than .08% of alcohol in your system, leaving the prosecution to rely heavily on "impairment" in general.  Often they argue that any impairment is enough to prove DWI, but it's important to note that impairment must rise to the degree that it interferes with the ability to drive.  And that, is more difficult to prove to a jury than merely being over .08%, as in an Alcohol DWI.