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Vermont DMV official Wendy Spooner seeks to remove 'drug-only' cases from ignition-interlock eligibility
Summary
A DMV witness told a legislative transportation panel the agency will ask lawmakers to delete language allowing drug-only charges to qualify for restricted-driver licenses because ignition-interlock devices only measure blood-alcohol; she also outlined program size, costs, eligibility rules and proposed clarifications to current law.
Wendy Spooner, of the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles' driver control unit, told a legislative transportation committee the DMV will ask lawmakers to remove language that currently suggests drug-only offenses can qualify a driver for a restricted-driver license that relies on an ignition-interlock device.
The change, Spooner said, is meant to align the statute with the technology: "The ignition interlock reads the BACs," she said, and devices monitor blood-alcohol concentration rather than impairment from other substances. "If it's a drug-only, then they are not eligible for the RDL," she added, while noting that cases involving both alcohol and drugs remain eligible because the alcohol component can be measured.
Spooner told the committee the DMV's request follows a prior bill the Senate transportation committee sent to Senate Judiciary that did not receive action; the agency plans to reintroduce similar language for the lawmakers to consider. "We're asking for language…
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