North Carolina’s impaired driving statute never says “alcohol” where people assume it does. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-138.1, you commit DWI by driving (1) while under the influence of an impairing substance, (2) with an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more, or (3) with any amount of a Schedule I controlled substance in your blood or urine. Prongs one and three have nothing to do with drinking — and they’re charged in Carteret County every week.
Three things that surprise people
- Your prescription is not a defense. The statute says it plainly: being legally entitled to use a medication is not a defense to impaired driving. If your lawfully prescribed medication impaired your driving, you can be convicted. This catches ordinary, careful people — a new dosage, a sleep aid still active in the morning, a painkiller after a procedure.
- For Schedule I substances, impairment doesn’t matter. Any detectable amount in blood or urine is enough under the statute’s third prong — no bad driving required.
- Marijuana occupies a strange middle ground. It is not Schedule I in North Carolina, so the state must prove actual impairment — but THC lingers in the body long after any effect fades, and prosecutions lean on officer observations and chemical results that a defense lawyer can and should attack.
Why drug DWI cases are more defensible than people assume
Alcohol cases come with a number. Drug cases usually don’t — there is no 0.08 for hydrocodone or THC, and the connection between a blood result and actual impairment at the time of driving is a genuine scientific gap. These cases rest heavily on officer opinion: observations, field tests designed for alcohol, sometimes a “drug recognition expert” whose methods are themselves contestable. That makes the state’s case more assailable, not less — if the defense knows where to push. Blood evidence, lab procedures, the timeline between dosing and driving: this is where drug DWI cases are won and lost.
Charged after taking something — legal or not?
The consequences mirror an alcohol DWI: the same sentencing levels, the same license revocation, the same permanent record. The defense is different, and it should be built by someone who has run these cases in this courthouse. Seventeen-plus years in Carteret County courtrooms; flat fee quoted up front. Call 252-728-1373 or tell us what you were charged with.