The West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program (GHSP) used grant funding from GHSA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to hold a multiday training session to educate participants on different aspects of drugged driving cases and the prosecution process.
The West Virginia GHSP partnered with the West Virginia Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor (TSRP) to organize a “West Virginia Prosecuting the Drugged Driver Course” in September 2019. Thirteen Assistant Prosecutors/Assistant Attorneys General and 12 drug recognition expert (DRE) officers attended.
The training course provided a history of the DRE program along with an overview of the seven drug categories and the 12-step DRE process. Attendees worked collaboratively during the training course’s lecture and hands-on activities.
Through the training course, attendees had the opportunity to become familiar with the prosecution of DUID cases, enabling DRE officers to be expert witnesses in these cases. There is growing interest in West Virginia to hold future training sessions for 2020.