Interviewer: In Arizona, the stakes are a higher, regarding the driver’s license for any prescription or illegal drug-related DUI?
Brian: Correct. For your driver’s license and your driving privileges, prescription medications and illegal drugs convictions result in penalties that are harsher than alcohol-related DUIs.
Hardship Licenses Will Not Be Granted for a Drug-Related DUI Conviction
Interviewer: Are there any drug conviction where you can qualify for a hardship license during the one-year revocation period? Do you have any recourse at all?
Brian: No, there is no available recourse. The end result will be a pure revocation for one year.
However, with an alcohol-related DUI, you can get a ‘to from work or school permit’ after serving an initial 30 days of pure suspension.
Interviewer: With a drug-related DUI, no matter what, the entire year you cannot get any kind of hardship license.
A Conviction May Also Entail an Ignition Interlock Device Installation When Your License Is Restored
Brian: Correct. Now, the one benefit, I suppose, is that if you are convicted only of count two–that you were driving and that you had any drug metabolite in your system—the following applies as a partial relief:
If you explain to the courts that your client did not have any alcohol, and that it was purely an issue with drugs or prescription medications, and you convince the courts to order that your client does not need any alcohol counseling or treatment, is it possible to get it so that after undergoing your one-year license revocation you will not have to have an ignition interlock device placed in any vehicle you operate for one year.
However, if the attorney does not know what they are doing or the judge doesn’t go along with what you are requesting, then the person who is convicted of simply taking their prescription medication could end up not only with one-year license revocation but then have to drive one year with an ignition interlock device. The ignition interlock device only tests for the presence of alcohol.
