THC Metabolite Prohibition Remains Constitutional - State v. Outzen

You may or may not have been aware that the constitutionality of 41-6a-517, better known as our “DUI metabolite” law, was challenged and argued before the Utah Supreme Court earlier this year. Lance Bastian with the Utah County Attorney’s Office argued this case and got a favorable ruling. The Court affirmed the convictions and upheld the constitutionality of the statute. Please see the summary below, which also has a link to the full opinion. 

Congratulations are in store for Lance. His argument was fantastic and he did a great job getting us a solid ruling on this issue. Well done Lance!

A summary for the case is below. 

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State v. Outzen, 2017 UT 30. 

Outzen fell asleep while driving his vehicle and caused a crash with another vehicle. The Utah Highway Patrol troopers that responded to the accident made observations that led them to believe that Outzen had recently used marijuana. They observed lack of convergence in defendant’s eyes and a green mucus covering defendant’s tongue. Outzen admitted to being a regular marijuana user and using marijuana the night before. A search of the vehicle resulted in no marijuana or paraphernalia. Troopers conducted SFSTs and concluded that Outzen was not too impaired to drive. Outzen was taken to the UHP office where he submitted breath, blood, and urine samples. The blood result returned positive for THC metabolite. Therefore, this case specifically addresses whether the statutory prohibition of the presence of non-psychoactive THC metabolite is constitutional. The Court affirmed the defendant’s conviction and ruled that this prohibition does not violate the Utah and United States Constitutions.

Outzen made three principle arguments to the Utah Supreme Court. First, defendant argued that the language contained in 41-6a-517 stating, “In cases not amounting to a violation of 41-6a-502” requires a showing of at least some measure of impairment. Second, defendant argued that 41-6a-517 punishes a status offense and violates the 8^th and 14^th Amendments. Finally, defendant argued that 41-6a-517 violates the Uniform Operation of Laws Provision of the Utah Constitution.

The Court dismissed Outzen’s first argument that some measure of impairment is required to violate 41-6a-517. To adopt this argument would require the Court to overlook the plain language of the statute. There is no statement in 41-6-517 at all regarding impairment, and, in fact, requiring impairment would negate the unambiguous prohibition of “any” amount of a controlled substance or metabolite of a controlled substance.

The Court also rejected Outzen’s argument that 41-6a-517 punishes a status offense and violates the 8^th and 14^th Amendments. The holding acknowledges that the statute does not criminalize simply having the metabolite of a controlled substance in the body, but requires the additional act of operating or being in actual physical control of a vehicle.

Finally, the Court analyzed the Uniform Operation of Laws provision of the Utah Constitution in relation to 41-6a-517. This required a three-pronged analysis. 1- Does the law create classifications? 2- Do these classifications impose any disparate treatment on persons similarly situated? 3- Does the legislature have any reasonable objective that warrants the disparity? The Court was skeptical that this statute imposes disparate treatment on persons similarly situation, but upheld the statute based upon the legislature’s broad authority to create laws, and the reasonable objectives the legislature had (or could have had) in enacting this law. Specifically, the Court held that the legislature could have passed this bill for the legitimate purposes of deterring illegal drug use and for promoting public safety on our roads. While the legislature may have had other legitimate purposes, these were sufficient under a rational basis review to hold the statute does not violated the Uniform Operations of Law provision of the Utah Constitution. 

You can access the full case through this link: State v. Outzen