To ensure protection on the highways and even on your local streets, state legislators want to do everything in their power to avoid any impaired driving. Prescription and over-the-counter drugs are legal to take. If they affect how you drive, though, an officer who notices it can pull you over.
The term DUI (Driving Under Influence) does not refer to alcohol or illegal drugs alone. Florida Statute 316.193 reaches driving while impaired by alcohol, by a chemical substance listed in Florida Statute 877.111, or by a substance controlled under chapter 893. Most prescription painkillers, sedatives and stimulants sit in chapter 893, and holding a valid prescription for one is not a defense. Regardless of your opinion, the laws are clear on mind-altering substances. You may need an experienced prescription drug DUI lawyer to represent you in a court of law if you get a DUI charge. If you want to know how to fight a DUI charge for prescription drugs, see the information below.
How Can Legal Drug Use Lead to a DUI?
Even when taking legal drugs, the police can detain you for driving under the influence. Simply put, the use of legal drugs can lead to DUI arrests and subsequent convictions. In many cases. prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications get the same treatment as alcohol-related DUIs.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is firmly against driving and taking many over-the-counter drugs, as some come with strict warnings of operating a motor vehicle.
Different substances can influence your driving in various ways. As such, some legal drugs warn of side effects, including:
- Diminished ability to make good judgments
- Decrease in alertness
- Shorter attention span
- Slower reaction time
- Blurred vision
As a consumer of legal or over-the-counter drugs, it's your responsibility to understand the side effects and the danger you can potentially cause to others on the road. You also have the duty to understand how these medications react with other substances you ingest when you choose to get behind the wheel.
If a cop pulls you over for the way you're driving, consider the following.
Don't Disclose Your Medications to the Police Officer
If an officer pulls you over for a possible DUI, never reveal the prescription drugs you have taken to a police officer. As many movies or TV shows state, “anything you say can or will be used against you in a court of law.” Instead, be courteous, but state that you would prefer to speak to an attorney before answering any questions.
Otherwise, they can use anything you say or do against you as proof if your case ever goes to court. While they may detain you, it may better serve you in the end.
There is one exception. If the officer is treating the stop as a medical emergency, tell the responding paramedics about your medications and health conditions. However, if the officer suggests you're under the influence, insist on speaking with an attorney present so he or she can provide legal counsel.
You Can Say No to Field Sobriety Tests
The police officer who pulls you over can order field sobriety tests. These are essentially different activities that test your coordination, balance, vision, and other physical faculties. You may think you're more than capable of performing the tasks, but if a trial comes of it, a failed test can also go against you as evidence of DUI infringement.
Examples of field sobriety tests include:
- Counting backward
- Walking on a straight line
- Balancing on a single leg
If you do consent to a field test, the officer, and later the prosecutor, can use that behavior as evidence that you were under the influence. Even if you have a legitimate medical condition, the field sobriety test can indicate or allude to intoxication when balance problems arise, nervous movements occur, or other similar behavior that a drunk person exhibits. Then, it can be more difficult to defend against in a court of law. Field sobriety tests are not mandatory and are instead voluntary. If you decline, the officer can still weigh that when deciding whether to arrest you, and under State v. Taylor, 648 So. 2d 701 (Fla. 1995), the prosecutor can tell the jury that you refused.
Refusing the Breathalyzer Test
Should you be asked to provide a sample of your breath for the purposes of determining its alcohol content, you have one of two decisions to make. When you sign for your driver's license in Florida, you consent to a lawful request for breath, blood, or urine testing. Refuse a lawful request and the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles suspends your license for one year on a first refusal, or 18 months if your license was already suspended, or you were fined under the boating statute (Florida Statute 327.35215), for an earlier refusal. Since October 1, 2025, a first refusal of a breath or urine test is also a second-degree misdemeanor under Florida Statute 316.1939, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. A refusal after a prior refusal suspension, or after a boating-refusal fine under Florida Statute 327.35215, is a first-degree misdemeanor if the officer told you so before you refused, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, and the earlier refusal counts whether it was a breath, urine, or blood test.
However, understand fully that when you provide that sample of your breath, blood, or urine, you are providing evidence to the police and prosecutors of what is in your breath, blood, or urine. While you may suffer consequences from refusing to provide those samples, it may, in your case, be the best option for you.
As it relates to prescription medication, many cough medications contain some amount of alcohol in them. The breathalyzers, commonly used when an officer suspects drunk driving, might be inaccurate or sensitive. Depending on the last time you drank the medicine, and the amount of food in your system, tests may show the presence of alcohol in your blood. Even if you maintain that you're sober and are confident you can pass a breathalyzer test, it may be best to refuse one and wait to speak to an attorney.
Telling the officer you had no idea the medication was affecting you will not end the case on its own. Under Florida Statute 775.051, voluntary intoxication is not a defense to any offense. That statute does carve out one exception: it still allows evidence that a chapter 893 controlled substance was taken under a lawful prescription issued to you by a practitioner.
What prescription drugs are considered DUI?
There are many drugs that can affect your ability to operate a motor vehicle. As above, any prescription or over-the-counter medication that affects your mental or physical ability to drive can work against you in a court of law.
Some examples of prescription drugs that can get you a DUI charge include:
- Oxycodone
- Hydrocodone
- Marijuana
- Vicodin
- Other opioids and methamphetamines
Whenever you take any of the above, abstaining from driving may keep you out of trouble with the law. If you must take any of the substances, ask or pay for transportation to ensure your safety and avoid a DUI charge.
How to Beat a DUI Charge for Prescription Drugs
If your case gets as far as court, the state has to prove the drug impaired your normal faculties while you were driving or in actual physical control of the vehicle. Florida has no per se limit for drugs the way it has a 0.08% reading for alcohol, so a positive lab result on its own is not enough.
The defense would need to question the significance of an officer's findings to beat a DUI charge. It depends on the circumstances, although it can be hard to convince the jurors that an officer's results were wrong about your intoxication.
In any event, a Florida DUI attorney can do many things to help you beat a DUI charge. For example, your attorney may:
- Call for witnesses on your behalf
- Seek medical expertise
- Collect video or audio evidence
- Request blood or urine samples
- Initiate plea bargaining
- Suggest the use as a mitigating circumstance
While you may be capable of beating a prescription drug charge yourself, an attorney may be able to execute any or all of the above to best protect your rights and interests.
Discuss the details of your cases with an attorney who can employ the right tactics based on your circumstances.
Hiring a Lawyer to Defend You
There are occasions where the person arrested for and charged with a DUI could use a lawyer's assistance to handle these charges immediately. Legal aid may help you with the officers' questions while you are still under arrest.
It makes no difference whether the impairment came from medication, an illegal drug, or alcohol; the charge is the same DUI under Florida Statute 316.193. What does change is the count. A second conviction carries a higher fine and more jail time than a first, and a third within 10 years can be charged as a third-degree felony.
Other potential acts, such as plea bargains, could be available when a plan is constructed ahead of time when you are about to face charges. A plea bargain can help mitigate the adverse effects when the conviction seems likely to be the outcome.
If you want to know how to fight a DUI charge for prescription drugs speak to a member of our team today. A Florida DUI lawyer for prescription DUI charges can guide you through the process.
