“You can still have a good time with friends and family, but take responsibility for yourself to be safe and line up a sober ride if you’re celebrating with alcohol,” advises James Wolfinbarger, chief of the Colorado State Patrol.  “If you don’t plan ahead, that’s when bad situations arise and you can end up behind bars and worse.”

The Colorado Department of Transportation has partnered with MillerCoors to encourage responsible decisions and provide useful tools for celebrants to get home safely. The beer company is offering free taxi vouchers at participating restaurants and bars.  Cab information and locations where people can get the free vouchers can be found at www.planaheadcolorado.com.

One thing celebrants can count on for sure this coming weekend is that police officers will be out in force looking for people who didn’t plan ahead and who decided to risk it all by drinking and driving. Following is a list of Colorado law enforcement agencies and their enforcement plans for the New Year’s weekend.

Saturation Patrols:

Adams County Sheriff’s Office, December 30 – January 3

Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, December 30 – January 3

Castle Rock Police Department, December 30 – January 3

Colorado Springs Police Department, December 30 – January 3

CSP/Castle Rock, December 30 – January 2

CSP/Adams County, December 30 – January 2

El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, December 30 – January 1

Fort Collins Police Department, December 30 – January 2

Greenwood Village Police Department, December 30 – January 1

Lakewood Police Department, December 30 – January 3

Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, December 30 – January 2

Increased Patrols:

Auraria Campus Police Department, December 30 – January 3

Aurora Police Department, December 30 – January 4

Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, December 30 – January 1

Boulder Police Department, December 30 – January 1

Brighton Police Department, December 30 – January 3

CSP/Colorado Springs, December 30 – January 3

CSP/Broomfield, December 30 – January 3

Denver Police Department, December 30 – January 3

Edgewater Police Department, December 30 – January 3

Longmont Police Department, December 30 – January 3

Northglenn Police Department, December 30 – January 3

Wheat Ridge Police Department, December 30 – January 1

Colorado lawmakers are considering presenting a proposal to the legislature early next year that, if passed, would set a “per se” standard for persons driving under the influence of marijuana. In other words, they are looking to set a level at which a driver will automatically be presumed to be driving impaired.

The state’s driving under the influence (DUI) laws already prohibit a person from operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both.  But there are two separate DUI charges — DUI and per se DUI. The DUI law makes illegal for a person to be “substantially incapable” of safely operating a vehicle due to the consumption of alcohol or drugs.  This law does not have a blood-alcohol level requirement, and a person can be convicted of DUI without a blood-alcohol test number as evidence.

Per se DUI, on the other hand, presumes that it is a crime to drive a vehicle with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood or 210 liters of breath within two hours of operating a vehicle.  A prosecutor does not have to prove that the driver was “substantially incapable” of safely operating a vehicle.

The lawmakers’ intention is to establish a similar threshold for the amount of THC (the active component of marijuana) in the blood. It is expected that they will propose a limit of 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood. Anyone with a blood-THC level over 5 would be considered to be too high to drive.

Critics of the proposal contend that a per se law does not take into account people’s tolerance levels. Attorney Sean McAllister told the Denver Post he is concerned that such a law could unfairly affect medical-marijuana patients, who may have high THC levels in their blood without being impaired.

Rep. Claire Levy (D-Boulder), who sponsored tough new DUI laws that went in effect July 1, is expected to be one of the sponsors of the THC proposal.

Under current Colorado DUI law, a person convicted of a DUI or DWAI with a prior alcohol offense faces up to a year in the county jail. The maximum sentence of one year applies despite the amount of priors the person has on his or her record.  This defeated bill would have presented a prison sentence to a third time DUI offender of up to 18 months, which is the maximum presumptive range for a Class 6 Felony in Colorado.

Colorado is one of only four states that does not have a felony DUI charge.

Unfortunately, there will be hundreds of drunk drivers on the roads to bring in 2010. Last year, police in Colorado made 569 DUI arrests in a week span between December 30, 2008 and January 5, 2009, according to CDOT’s website. This number was noticeably larger than the DUI arrest statistics for 2008. DUI enforcement in Colorado for January 1, 2010 will be just as intense, if not more so.

The increase in DUI enforcement in Colorado is based largely on tragic fatalities and editorials in the local media and on television in 2009. The increased DUI enforcement includes additional officers patrolling traffic, and an increase of roadside DUI checkpoints at various locations around the state.

The best advice anyone can adhere to for a safe New Year’s Eve is to make alternate arrangements for transportation, and to avoid putting oneself in a dubious situation, recommends Denver DUI attorney Jay Tiftickjian. “Once alcohol is in your system, your decision making ability is impaired. Therefore, it is always best to make your transportation arrangements prior to going out for the night.”