Prescribed Methadone and DUI

[HenryS354]

Hey guys,

I just saw a post about legal possesion and it reminded me of an issue I had while on methadone.

A buddy and I were driving through a really nice neighborhood in a not so nice car....  I had just gotten a new cell phone with a full keyboard on it and received a text message.  I pulled over to reply cause I wasnt used to texting on it.  A cop drove by and when I proceeded up the road I was pulled over.

She was a real B**** and kept telling me and my friend "Tell me now if u have anything in this vehicle I need to know about"  I told her no over and over.  She asked to search the vehicle and I like a moron told her yeah (Cause I didnt think I had anything to hide) Oh was I wrong....

I had just come back from my appt at the methadone clinic and had 5 bottles on the front seat....  She found them, and immediatelly put me in cuffs.  I told her I had just come back from my appt which is why I had them with me and my name WAS ON THE BOTTLES.  She looked at them and asked why they were almost empty. (I was on 2 mgs of liquid at the time which is next to nothing in volume)

She then found an empty bottle under the seat dated a month or so ago, and said that was evidence that I was taking it in the car.  I tried to explain to her that at the right doses an addict gets NO euphoria from it and that I was actually finishing a taper from a high dose to get off it.

She then told me that it was a sched II narc (Like I didnt know this) and that regardless she can give me a DUI, which she did.  All the while I kept saying "If u pulled over a lil old lady coming out of a CVS parking lot cause she didnt signal, and had Oxy on her seat cause she just picked it up would u arrest her?"  She said "Thats differnt"  Hmmmm Different cause I am an addict trying to better my life?

I had to go to court, and my counselor had to show reports and studies, and I had to have a series of blood levels to be drawn to prove my plasma levels... It was a nightmare!

I was not a flight attendant at the time, so I was not in a transportation career and not governed by the NTSB, so Im trying to make my life better.... Am I supposed to stay in the house all day cause I took 2mgs of methadone????

I just figured I would rant for awhile... Anyone else had similair instances?

Sorry for the long post!
Henry

[122 Tactical Fighter Group]

That is a totally absurd situation for you to have had to submit to - - Sounds like a "Napolean complex" or something ................

[HenryS354]

I like the way you think!  ;-)  

Like I said I had no problem cooperating with her in any way, it wasnt until she started talking to me like IM some piece of Sh** and bein kinda rough with the cuffs.

As far as the M'done vs percs, Thats why I brought up the question of If she were to pull over a lil old lady after leaving the pharmacy and she had oxy for her pain in the front seat would she have been treated this way.... and her response was "Thats different"

And of course I had a public defender...  lol (I was a 2nd year medical student at the time and was bogged down with student loans) He made it always seem like I was lucky and like I was the one who was wrong and should be grateful for getting the charges dropped....

[Tuck24]

The officer cuffed you as we say "for your safety and mine". Plus they should be able to call the clinic to verify the take home bottles. Also just b/c it was a schedule II drug and she gave you a hard time about it, you should have asked her if it would've been Percocet from a pharmacy with your name on it, would she still be stupid and ask to search. No difference in Methadone and Percocet. She gave you a hard time b/c she thought you were a heroin user. That really is starting to **** me off the more I think about it. You are entitled to all your money back and I would sue them on grounds of unlawful detainment. Talk to a lawyer b/c if you used a Public Defender they will only save the city's A**, it's who they work for.

[kim715]

I'm glad to hear you got the charges dropped,but $5K ...OUCH!!!!!!!!!!  

The stigma is a hard thing to deal with.My clinic opened at 5 am,and wasn't in a very 'safe' part of town I might add,but I would be sure to get there as soon as the doors opened.I wanted to get in and out in fear someone I knew might see me.After the clinic told me about getting 'caught' carrying the bottles with me could get me in trouble.I was so paranoid to even drive the 20 minutes it took me to get home with my take home bottles.The way it came about,the clinic telling me that,is that I asked about it because I heard a guy who was also a 'patient' there telling the one nurse how he had gotten into a MVA and the police found his take home bottles of methadone in his pocket and poured them out.

[HenryS354]

I could totally understand where she was coming from, the problem I had was with her delivery.  Before she even saw the bottles, she kept incinuating (Sp?) that we had something to hide.  Then after finding the methadone bottles before she finished the search I and my friend were put in cuffs and treated not so nicely.  She noticed that my plates had recently been suspended due to a traffic violation and when her backup showed up luckily it was the officer that ticketed me earlier that year for the traffic violation (Seatbelt)

He told her that I had co operated and was more than willing to help them out, and I was not a threat to them.  Thanks to him I was uncuffed.

The charges were dropped but after many missed days of work, bond that was posted and attorney fees, it cost me a lot of time and around $5K

All over stigma.  Its so sad that people that are trying to better their lives can be treated this way!

H

[Tuck24]

Hey Henry.....Since I was a Police Officer (a cool one) I could see where she Could arrest you with DUI but she should've administered tests to see if you were. Say those bottles were empty beer cans, would'nt you assume the driver had been drinking and give the tests. If you were not impaired, then she can't ticket you. If the bottles were full she had no "PROBABLE CAUSE". People have this stigma with methadone and heroin junkies. I was on it at the Police Dept. for about a year and never told them, but most people don't think like me and cut people slack. Did you ever get the charges dropped.