At this moment someone in the USA is being falsely or mistakenly arrested because they failed a medical exam—the test that can send you to jail is called "Field Sobriety Testing" or FST, an advanced medical and neurology exam used by police.
A law officer can diagnose you as "impaired" and "unable to drive" and arrest you forcefully only based on FST performed on a dark, uneven noisy road side. Approximately 85% of my patients fail a simplified version of field sobriety testing.
In my book, Sobriety Testing, we list over 500 medical causes for field sobriety testing failure. Even a special 72 hour training to be a "Drug Recognition Expert" is not enough knowledge. In medicine 72 hours and "expert" is a contradiction in terms.
Legal prescriptions are next in the arrest factory of the USA. Many people take daily medications and most bottles warn of drowsiness and to avoid driving if you take the drug, but you, your family, and your doctor know you are fully alert on these medications. It is an established fact clear to all who know you--these prescriptions do not impair your functioning. You are alert when you take them. So if you use a prescription anxiety medicine, a muscle spasm medicine, sinus medicines, anti-depressants, or a pain medicine, even if you can work 16 hour days alertly, the law officers have no idea that you are never sedated on these legal prescriptions, and you might still be arrested. So the law officer is making decisions over the authority of a physician, who would quickly adjust a severely sedating medicine. Also, the police officer, sheriff or state trooper is not being given all the facts! They need to know your baseline coordination. They need forms like the ones invented in this book—a first of its kind. Physicians currently have no role in DWI law and few citizens have read articles showing most sober people fail this exam, depending on the group tested.
And amazingly, new police officers have failed the tests and they were told by senior police to "practice them." Further, another troubling reality is that gymnasts, ballerinas, and people who practice these tests, will often pass them if impaired. Finally, since regular people have no experience walking on a balance beam or standing on one leg, they fail terribly.
If a regular ethical citizen is surrounded by a number of police or sheriffs with lights flashing from the cruisers, the average person is scared, hungry, hot, confused and does not know how the world became crazy.
One minute they were going to church, and then they are speeding to a local jail with steel handcuffs cutting their flesh. It will be a long time before someone even knows where they are located. And when you finally get out of the hell of a jail, even if you were not drinking or doing illegal drugs, you will start to pay.
According to Money magazine the average DUI costs $10,000.
Please understand some clear facts. These tests are hard. I personally cannot do them and I am a very good dancer and kick fighter. They are far more complex than most appreciate.
Further, FST is not based on quality science, and many studies show sober people failing these tests
For $5.75 you can possibly save yourself from $10,000 in DUI or DWI fees and prevent massive distress from jail and court misery. Bring these forms to your doctor today and speak to your health care provider.
They may save you from being in the paper next month after a DUI/DWI arrest, where you will look tired, unkempt and like a sociopath. When the charges are dropped the paper will not report that good news
BE PREPARED AND GET YOUR MEDICAL NOTE.
