Look, everyone knows that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health. We all know that it is bad for children to be exposed to second-hand smoke. I understand that it is difficult to quit smoking. When you are going through a divorce or child custody case, the last thing on your mind is quitting smoking. I hear you loud and clear and I would never ask you to quit during your case. But if you are my client, I will certainly ask you to engage in some real life problem solving though. Here are some of my thoughts on smoking in your car or in the house.
It is really a bad idea to smoke when your children are in the car for multiple reasons. The obvious one is the fact that your children are breathing in a ton of second-hand smoke. Your children don’t need that or want that, especially if they have any level of breathing issues. In our dry climate, we all have enough trouble with respiratory problems. The other thing that you may not realize is the smell factor. If you smoke in your car, even if you try not to smoke when your children are in the car, your car smells bad, like smoke. The same applies to your house. This smell permeates the children’s clothes and even their skin. Children do not want to be the children that smell bad at daycare or school. They are going through enough challenges without worrying about smelling like smoke. Believe me, I know as I grew up in a smoker’s house. I don’t blame my family for that as it was the 70s and 80s so smoking was much more prevalent, but I noticed it and my friends noticed it. I was embarrassed that my clothes smelled icky and wished that they didn’t.
These issues come up in divorce and custody cases all of the time. So if you are a smoker and you have not considered it before, now is a good time to make a change for your children and for you. While it may be too much to quit smoking all together, consider limiting the cigarette smoking to outside areas and in the garage. I know a lot of people like the electronic cigarettes too. There are lots of options out there to consider, but whatever you do, please limit your child’s exposure to second-hand smoke.
It is the holiday season and I am writing you this article to hopefully keep some of you from being arrested. I know you have been taught by your parents and by society that it is always wrong to lie. We have been indoctrinated from an early age that it is always important to tell the truth; in fact in grade school we were taught that our first president George Washington cut down a cherry tree and then when asked about it, confessed to his misdeeds. Telling the truth is always a noble endeavor but the caveat is sometimes when questioned by the police it is okay to tell a white lie.
Specifically, if you are pulled over by a police officer and he asks you, if you have smoked marijuana recently, the answer is always NO. Even if this is not the whole truth, because if you answer truthfully, in the state of Nevada, you will almost always be arrested for driving under the influence of a controlled substance. i.e. DUI. The truth will definitely not set you free.
The reason for this is that Nevada has a law that states if you have a certain amount of THC (marijuana), or marijuana metabolite in your system while driving you are guilty of a DUI. This is the case even if you are not, at the time of driving impaired by the drug. In fact, you could have smoked marijuana days, if not weeks before driving and still be over the legal limit.
This is because Nevada has a” per se law “which mandates anyone over this limit is guilty of a DUI. I know a DUI should be “driving under the influence”, but this sadly is not the law in the state of Nevada. Thus, even if you have a medical marijuana card , this is generally not a defense. In fact, telling an officer that you have a legal marijuana card, from this state or from the neighboring state of California, will almost always insure your arrest. The police know that if you smoked in the past week you will most likely be over the limit and technically guilty of a DUI.
I can state that if you do have a valid medical marijuana card from Nevada or California, there is a legal argument that can be used in your defense, but this is only after you have been arrested, spent time in jail and had your life severely inconvenienced.
So, if during this holiday season you find yourself in the situation where you are pulled over by a police officer and he asks you if you have smoked marijuana, do not state”, I smoked last night”,” I smoked last week”, I smoked a month ago”. Never admit to having smoked at all. Because any of the above answers will most likely lead to a DUI investigation and a subsequent arrest. This is even if you are not impaired in any manner, by the marijuana.
In closing, enjoy this holiday season. Do not drink and drive, and if you have smoked in the last month and you have to drive, when asked by the officer, it’s okay to tell a white lie.
Happy Holidays
Please, a white lie should only be told to the police as described above, this advice does not apply to loved ones, employees, bosses or especially your lawyer.
People often expect divorce will be a knock-down drag-out fight over what is left of the family. Realistically, it should be quite the opposite. When a husband, wife, or both, decide to end their marriage, the divorce process should be focused on making a clean break of the old family, so the two parts may move on with their lives. A good divorce attorney will work hard on the issues preventing the clean break, work to diffuse emotions often in the way, and educate the client on trusted methods for moving on.