Implied Consent – Controlled Substances

A sample of appellant’s blood tested positive for amphetamine after police stopped him and field sobriety testing indicated that he was impaired. The Commissioner of Public Safety revoked appellant’s driver’s license for 90 days. Appellant contested the revocation in District Court, arguing that the revocation cannot stand because the positive test resulted from his lawful use of a prescription drug. The District Court made no fact findings on the assertion. It instead rejected the argument on the legal ground that the prescription-drug affirmative criminal defense does not apply in administrative license-revocation proceedings under the implied-consent statute. The Court of Appeals held that when a District Court reviews the Commissioner of Public Safety’s decision under the implied-consent statute to revoke the license of a driver whose chemical-test results indicated the presence of a Schedule II controlled substance, the District Court may not rescind the revocation on the ground that the drug’s presence resulted from the driver’s lawful use of the drug under a physician’s prescription. Affirmed.

A14-1236 Dornbusch v. Comm’r of Pub. Safety (Hennepin County)

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