Many medications require specific timing for best results. Taking your medicine as your doctor ordered helps manage your health problems. But some prescriptions can affect how well you drive, even when you follow all instructions correctly.
This creates a risky situation. You might take your medication exactly as prescribed and still face legal problems if you drive afterward.
How legal prescriptions lead to criminal charges
Indiana law prohibits driving while affected by any substance that impairs your ability. This includes legal medications from your doctor.
Many common prescriptions cause drowsiness or slow your reactions. Pain medications like oxycodone or anxiety drugs like Xanax and even some antidepressants have these risks, too.
Police will pull you over if they notice poor driving, regardless of what caused it. Unlike alcohol tests, there’s no simple number that proves medication impairment.
Officers rely on field sobriety tests and their observations of your behavior instead. This makes defending against medication-related OWI charges much harder.
Strong defenses for properly used prescribed medicine
If charged with an OWI from prescription medications, you can fight back with these defenses:
- Not enough evidence: Challenge whether they can prove the medication actually affected your driving
- Proper use: Show you took the medicine exactly as prescribed
- Unusual reaction: Prove you had a rare response that wasn’t expected
- Health factors: Explain how other medical issues affected field test performance
- Dispute observations: Present evidence that contradicts the officer’s claims
- Medical testimony: Get your doctor to explain how your specific medication works
- Emergency need: Explain why you had no choice but to drive despite the risks
Having your prescription records and dosage instructions strengthens these defenses considerably.
Protecting yourself requires proactive planning
Simple changes can go a long way. One of the key changes you can make is timing your doses around your driving schedule to help you avoid problems.
When possible, take medications after arriving at your destination rather than before driving. Also, always check warning labels on your medications and discuss driving with your doctor.
OWI charges from prescription drugs can happen even when you follow medical advice perfectly. These cases differ from alcohol cases because measuring impairment proves much harder.
