A 20-year-old Colorado man was sentenced on May 2, 2019 to eight years in prison for driving while impaired by marijuana and killing 24-year-old Amanda Hill in a four-car crash.  The crash occurred when the man’s car veered across a double line into oncoming traffic, first striking another car before hitting Amanda’s car head-on.  Amanda was airlifted to a hospital but died from her injuries.

Francisco Sanchez, 20, was sentenced after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and impaired driving.  Despite Sanchez telling investigators that he had not been drinking or doing drugs, he later tested positive for low levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Colorado legalized recreational marijuana 5 years ago. It was the first state to do so. While marijuana is legal, it is against the law to drive while impaired by marijuana. Colorado has no strict “legal limit” for marijuana beyond which you are considered too stoned to drive. However, if you have more than 5 nanograms of THC in your system, the law provides that there is a reasonable inference that you are impaired by marijuana. Even so, regardless of the amount of THC in your system, a charge of marijuana impairment can still be proven by how you look, acted or drove.

Because Sanchez pleaded guilty, there was no need for the prosecution to prove the amount of THC in his system or to prove impairment in other ways. Regardless, unless there was some believable innocent explanation for why he drove into oncoming traffic, there was likely a strong inference that marijuana use was to blame.