

The lingering effects of the Halcion cause Ray to fall asleep while driving and crash his car. But he gets in his car to drive to the work site anyway. When his alarm wakes him the next morning, he is still extremely drowsy and confused. Not thinking much about the early wake-up, he takes his Halcion at 11pm the night before as usual.

He usually takes his Halcion at 11pm and then sleeps for eight hours.īut one day Ray needs to wake up at 4:30am to travel to a distant work site for his job. She starts lane-splitting and swerving on the freeway and is pulled over.Įlena may be arrested and charged with DUI of Lunesta.Įxample: Ray has been taking the prescription pill Halcion to help him sleep better during a period when he is stressed out by financial worries. So it starts to take effect while she is driving home.

This means she won’t have to waste time waiting for the Lunesta to take effect after she gets home.īut her boss decides to keep her at work for an extra half hour after she has taken the Lunesta. Desperate for a good night’s sleep, she decides to take her Lunesta at the end of her shift, drive home and then go straight to bed. One night Elena gets off work at two in the morning. Her doctor writes her a prescription for Lunesta, a popular sleep aid. She develops insomnia, which is crippling her ability to function.
Sonata medication code#
In other words, the elements of the crime of driving under the influence of sleeping pills closely parallel the elements of the crime of driving under the influence of alcohol under Vehicle Code 23152(a) VC. Because of the sleeping pills, your physical or mental abilities were impaired to such a degree that you could no longer drive in the way that an ordinarily cautious sober person would drive under similar circumstances.While you were under the influence of sleeping pills (or the combined influence of sleeping pills and alcohol, or sleeping pills and another drug), and.The elements of a DUI of sleeping pills charge are: 3 When is it a crime to drive under the influence of sleeping pills? 2 But for regular users of sleeping pills who have been warned about or are aware of the risk of sleep driving, California courts are unlikely to accept unconsciousness as a defense to DUI of sleeping pills charges. In most situations, being unconscious/asleep would be a valid legal defense to criminal charges. 1Ĭalifornia DUI of sleeping pills is complicated by the phenomenon of “sleep driving” – that is, driving while not fully awake after taking a pill such as Ambien or Lunesta. This is because California’s driving under the influence of drugs (“DUID”) law, applies to legal prescription and over-the-counter drugs as well as to illegal drugs. You will face California DUI penalties for driving under the influence of sleeping pills such as Ambien or Lunesta.
