I went to see my sub doctor today at the clinic. Afterwards I had a hour before I had to be in group counseling so I went to the store to get coffee. I pulled out onto the road, no traffic a all and suddenly a cop was behind me. Leads me to believe he watched me pull out of the clinic.. He asked where I was, I didn't lie I know he saw me, he made me do all kinds of sobriety test, arrested me and took me to the hospital for blood, and oh yeah he also searched my car. I don't do anything but suboxone. I've been on it for almost a year and have stay clean. I was on oxys. But he arrested me for DUI. Now I'm afraid to drive to the clinic again. I did nothing wrong. I don't even feel anything from the suboxone anymore. I did maybe the first week and this it. I'm heart broken and sick over this. I've never had a DUI in my life and I'm 52. Its not fair. I was targeted.

I'm new here, replying to my own post. I didn't even ask my questions I wanted to ask, and I don't know how to edit my post. But, I was just wondering if anyone else out there had had a DUI/DWI while on sub's. I worked hard to get where I am. Never missed one appt or counseling, and I'm taking care of my 82 year old dad. I can't afford this. I can't even believe this happened. I know I need a lawyer. I've always respected cops, but not anymore. This was a set up. He thought I was dope head, why else search my car? I found the edit button..I have more questions below in my own reply..I'm just exhausted over what happened today.

You are not impaired by buprenorphine if you've been on it this long. Was anything else in your system-- alcohol, or benzos? Did they film the field sobriety tests?

I don't know about the case law in these situations. I had a patient who was pulled over for DWI after exhibiting road rage at a slow driver; he ran over a couple highway cones and gave the person the finger, and the other driver called 911. My patient was on methadone and benzos, but had been on the same dose for years. My advise was to take a plea; I didn't think he would beat the charges, given his behavior and his beligerant attitude after he was pulled over. But he hired a good lawyer and paid a doc to be his expert witness. He was found not guilty, but it cost $17,000 for the lawyer and doctor!

I would be happy to write a letter for you, but I don't know if my opinion would hold any weight at all, especially since we've never met. But if your attorney things I can help, let me know.

If it is as you described, then yes, you were unfairly targeted-- and that is not right. Anyone else have an experience to share?

Marley,
You a victim of the war on addicts sir. The useless war on drugs. Im very sorry this happned to you and concerned that it could to any of us. Where are you located Marley? What state?
You must fight this. You ve done nothing wroug sir. Get your dr involved. Documents and record s of your treatment. The federal laws regarding your treatment. This is a a local cop trying to....idk, make a damn name for himself?. My god.
Did you fail the street testing? Im guessing not. He had no evidence. Hence the trip to the hospital for blood. Rediculous. .
Get a lawyer and get it thrown out. Total bs.. totally. .
Ive never been anti cop, nut there are bad apples. Man, im not going to be able fall asleep after reading this im was angry. .
This has happened before on here, but your story is the worst ive read..

Razor58

Hey Marley,

Ya this is the pits this happened. Head shaking. If you haven't already found the search box on the top of page menu, click search. Then in the keyword field type DUI. a bunch of posts come up not related but there are a few that are bup DUI's and how folks dealt w them. I just tried it. Pick thru all and you'll find the sub dui's. Do an online search too - for suboxone DUI. see if any come up. Truly awful this happens and happened to you. You're doing a great job w sticking w your bup program. Did you let your clinic know what happened? And that you are concerned for going back? I'd ask them for a letter as well as accept Dr J's offer to write one. And ya, an attorney will be needed. So very sorry. Not fair. Please keep us posted. There was a poster orangedoll - you'll find her sub dui story in when you do the search. and she was great to update. helps others. Again, so sorry and wishing you my best. P

_________________
Did well on Suboxone. Stopped May 2011.
Stopping went well -- its the staying stopped -- where the real work begins.
Coming here 'keeps recovery green'.

Marley that's horrible! It really really really pisses me off!

Dr. Junig, awesome of u to offer ur help in writing a letter! Ur a VERY cool person

Marley I have heard of this, in my area. I was in counselling with a lady that got charged with a dui just by having her script on her and they charged her.... even though she's a patient and had been on this medication for 1 yr. Our addiction counselor and doctor got involved in her case. Sadly I don't know how it turned out.

Some police officers do profile clinics. About 3 months ago, I was at my clinic, and a lady came in and announced to everyone that a police officer was pulling ppl over that was leaving our clinic. He didn't pull me over, so I don't know if she was paranoid or what, but I think it'd be safe to assume she was right. I usually have my fiance drive me since then. This area I live in is very anti suboxone for some dang reason. We have several clinics and I think they're ticked off about it. Just my humble little opinion.

I sure hope u try to challenge this Marley, a good attorney can do great things. I've saw a person hire a big fancy attorney and get out of a dui because once the camera recording from the officer was requested, they claimed the officer was hitting on this lady! If course that time wasn't anything to do with buprenorphine but still, it happened. She was a friend of my niece lol.

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Jennifer

Trouble is the cop holds lots of cards. He'll likely testify Marley was driving erratically, had slurred speech, and blood shot eyes. He's not going to go away without a fight if it goes to court. And lawyers are sickeningly expensive. I completely understand where pelican and Jennifer are coming from, but I might go for a plea. Hurts I know, and goes against all instincts for what's right and what's wrong. Of course if you have the money, or can find a good public defender, though those are likely rare. Also you'd likely need an expert witness to testify that bupe used in long term maintenance patients will not impair you.

However you go you can count on the forum for support!

Hey Marley,

Agree Godfrey is spot on to the officer's behavior. I was thinking a DUI attorney for a range of help - from fighting the entire charge to learning about local laws and what you can do on your own and making sure you get a copy of your test results. One poster made a deal to stay out of trouble for three years and DUI charge dropped to a negligent driving 1. One poster fairly quickly got his reduced to reckless driving and then accepted that charge. One poster said in WA state a person could get DUI for taking benadryl. Wonder how they handle weed these days...

The other thing is that likely your blood test included testing for other substances which will show no other substances detected. Or at least no illegal or non prescribed. The officer could have been hoping to catch someone not taking/selling bup and hoping test might show no bup but yes to other substances.

this is the pits and not fair. I hope we hear back from you. Best, P

_________________
Did well on Suboxone. Stopped May 2011.
Stopping went well -- its the staying stopped -- where the real work begins.
Coming here 'keeps recovery green'.

a cop can't sit outside a bar so why can they sit outside a clinic?
any updates?

_________________
Get your shit together and live your life." Black Snake Moan

I did go and talk to my attorney. He says we can beat this, but it will cist me 2500 bucks. That is if the coo files the charges since he is waiting for my blood results before he files the charges. But yes, I was given several field sobriety test along the road. It was very difficult standing on one leg freezing and being very nervous on top of it being very windy, I kept telling him the wind was blowing me of balance, I only weigh a little over a 100 pounds. I now know I could have and should have refused that test. My attorney says he had no right searching my car either. And yes, the cops here are not allowed to watch the clinics or bars, but they do and get away with it anyways. Also, my doctor at the clinic told me if I need a letter or anything wrote up, he would do whatever he could to help me. I'm just hoping and praying that the cop doesn't file charges. My attorney called the magistrates office and nothing has been filed as if this past Wednesday. But, if he does, I am fighting this tooth and nail. I want to thank everyone for their support here. Especially you doc! That's awesome of you to offer me help and I will let my attorney know, and I will let you know if we need anything. Everybody at my clinic knows about this, because when I got pulled over I just got done seeing the doctor and had 40 minutes before I had to be in group counseling so I ran to get coffee. I was driving fine, the first thing the cop asked me is where I was coming from, and if he could search my car. It was 9:40, and the methadone clinic ends at 10:30. Honestly, I think he thought I just took methadone. To be honest, a lot of the people here on methadone are still on the other drugs too..a couple of my old friends still do it. But anyways I am clean, all but sub's, well when he took me to the hospital he let me call the clinic to let them know that I wouldn't be there because I had given a girl a rude there that morning and she then had to find a ride home. So nice of him...no really he was a dick. Sorry for the language. I know I'm rambling on...I'm just still in shock. Alright, I hope I replied in the right place here and maybe I should go and try to figure out how to do my profile you all can get to know me, and me you a little more. You guys are great! I really wasn't expecting so much support. Peace and love to you all.

U definitely don't have to let them search ur car. They have to literally see something in plain sight or the K-9 hit on ur car, before they can force u to search.... at least in Tennessee. That's one of the few useful things I learned from being married to a police officer.

I know there are good police officers out there, definitely. I also know there's plenty of them that will cross the line just a little to get what they want. Once I was in jail (unfortunately) and was going down to court. As I sit in the little corner in the 'inmates section' my ex husband, who's in uniform, comes up and asks the corrections officer something. I was watching him thinking.... what's he up to. Well the correction officer took me into a private room and left me handcuffed with him! Shut the door and everything! He proceeded to pull out paperwork for me to sign over my parental rights to our daughter! This actually happened to me. I said NO. He said..... look at u Jennifer, look at what u have become. I still said no. He finally let me out and I resumed my seat in the corner with the correction officer looking on.

After I got out of jail, I was furious, I called his chief (who I knew because I worked with all of them for 10 yrs). His chief asked me to come in and file a complaint. Guess what, I was too far gone on priorities to take it further because I was still using heavily. I just let it go! I don't know how I was so far gone to just let that go, that was a lawsuit and I would have won.

I guess the reason I'm telling this awful experience is because I know it's a lot of money to fight this Marley, but if at all possible u should. You'd be possibly saving someone else from going through this. I know my experience was different than urs because I was still using and wasn't doing right at the time. U did nothing wrong and was just targeted.

Gosh it feels good to finally tell that story. I've always been afraid to share too much, but I don't really care because my ex abused his police authority because I was a low life addict to him. I'll never forget that and it makes me even more angry that I couldn't get it together enough to fight bk at the time. But he didn't get what he wanted, I never signed over my parental rights. Thank God for buprenorphine. When I say that I owe this medication my life, I mean that in every way possible.

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Jennifer

Like me, suboxone saved my life. I know I would've been dead by now if I stayed on that road I was on. It sounds like your husband tried to use you being at your lowest to try to get you to sign those papers. I'm so glad to hear that you didn't and got yourself clean. And yes, I promise to fight this till the bitter end. I also promise to take it to the state representive and let them know how wrong this is, targeting innocent people. If I had done something wrong, and had a reason to be pulled over it be different. I went to my make-up group today from the one I missed from being pulled over. My counselor pulled out my urine results from the time I started there and every one of them were perfect. We are watched when we give urines too, just saying. I have never cheated or missed any appointment. She told me today that the cop is either looking for other drugs in my system, which they have a urine from right before I got pulled over, or he is looking for no sub's in my system? Which I told her I don't get. It doesn't mean he can prove I was selling them or anything..why no sub's? He said he was checking my therapuetic levels. How do they consider what a therapeutic level is if my own doctor has never done blood work for a therapeutic level? I'm just not getting any of it. But I know one thing for sure, if I find out any of my rights have been violated, I will make it known. I'm not saying by a law suit or anything like that, I'm saying I'm going to make a stink with our state representive and let m voice be heard. Listen to me, now I feel like having a demonstration lol..anyways I'm not feeling the anxiety today that I have been. Things are a little better for right now for me. I just have to stop searching the internet for a while. Its been stressing me.

I agree with that strategy Marley, maybe that'll make them think twice before targeting clinics. What gets me is, if I was thinking of targeting a place (knowing I'm obviously not supposed to do that) I could think of other places. There's pain clinics, there's the known drug dealers, there's liquor stores. Why profile a place that's for recovery and giving drug tests and can bk up what they've taken with required drug screening? My clinic also does the 'someone going into the bathroom with me' drug screen.

Like I said in an earlier post somewhere, there was a cop profiling my clinic a few months ago. Someone got pulled over after leaving but I didn't hear anything else about it so maybe they were let go. But I'm very aware of my surroundings every time I leave that place. It's a shame to be made to feel like we're still having to watch for police over our shoulders.

Don't drive urself silly over this though, if u have to just let it go for ur own sanity then I'd definitely understand that

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Jennifer