What do you call modern day hacks who insist they can tell what drug a person has ingested just by looking at him? A DRE (drug recognition evaluator) is someone law enforcement may call to help aid them in determining whether or not you are DUI. They are “specially trained” to look for drugs, but here’s the reality – they base their decisions on pseudo-science and are not qualified to testify as experts at trial. So, it goes like this, you get pulled over and blow a 0.0 and do ok on the field sobriety tests. All good, right? No. If the officer calls in his buddy, the DRE, the DRE will poke his voodoo doll, determine you to be under the influence of drugs and you will be arrested. Then, they’ll likely pull your blood and take you to jail. Then, a lot of times, the blood work comes back with nothing in your system so the case is reduced to a traffic violation or whatever and that’s it in the State’s eyes. Wait…That’s it?!? What do you mean that’s it? You just went through a battery of tests under stressful conditions, probably had a cop lecture you on the way to the jail or forestation, had your blood drawn, got put in handcuffs, spent a day or two traumatized and treated like a piece of meat in jail, paid for a bond, had to go through the horror of upcoming court dates, likely got your license suspended, all for them to say, “Oops. Guess the DRE was wrong. It’s a $150 fine and that’s it.” They are the equivalent of K9 handlers tipping off their dogs, which happens quite often as well. And it’s not right. Don’t trust these kinds of unreasonable searches and seizures under any circumstances. And don’t go it alone.
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