Now that marajuana use is legal, the courts are grappling with how to prove a driving while impaired case based on ingestion of marajuana. Just recently, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided a challenge to the method used by the police to prove that someone was impaired while operating a motor vehicle because they ingested marajuana. Police officers can be trained and certified as "Drug Recognition Experts ("DRE"). In the past, as with any new attempted use of a technical or scientic method, the courts had to determibe whether the method was generally acceptable within the applicable scientic community. The Supreme Court appointed a retired judge to hold hearings on the issue. On February 17, 2023, the New Jersey Supreme Court in State v. Olenowski decided that the use of a DRE at trial shall now be tested by examining the methodology and reasoning underlying the proposed expert testimony. The Court has remanded the case to the special master to determine how the new standard is to be applied to DRE cases.
