In Michigan there were 150 people arrested every day last year 2005 for DUI, according to the Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center.

Here is a summary of the results of the annual audit: There were 54,056 drunken- and impaired-driving arrests in 2005, a little more than 1,000 fewer than in 2004. Injuries resulting from alcohol and/or drug-related crashes were down 8 percent, from 8,667 in 2004 to 7,892 in 2005. And alcohol or drug-related fatalities were down 2.4 percent, from 418 in 2004 to 408 in 2005.

Of 54,056 people arrested for drunken driving in Michigan in 2005, nearly 80 percent, or 42,000, were men. Despite the spending of tens of millions of federal dollars on law enforcement and advertising, drunken driving remains a serious problem, especially among men ages 21-34, officials said. Of those in that age group involved in fatal car crashes, 33 percent registered a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent or more.

So while national drunken-driving fatalities climbed in 2005, the number of Michigan fatalities actually declined 2.4 percent, to 408 from 418 in 2004. Drunken driving arrests in Michigan also declined, from 55,070 in 2004 to 54,056 in 2005.

However, Michigan State Police did a partial-year report on alcohol-related fatalities in both 2005 and 2006. According to the report, by April 30, 2005, the state had 68 alcohol- or drug-related traffic fatalities; at the same point in 2006, there were 99. The percent of all fatal crashes that were alcohol-related edged up from 26.2 percent in 2005 to 33.2 percent in 2006. Fortunately, statistics are still on a downward trend.

There were more than 1.4 million Drunk Driving arrest in the United States in 2004.

In a related development, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the presence of 11-carboxy-THC in the body was sufficient to support a conviction under a law prohibiting driving with any trace of a controlled substance in your system. The Supreme Court accepted as fact that 11-carboxy-THC has no narcotic effects and causes no impairment, and also that 11-carboxy-THC can remain in the body for up to a month after ingestion of marijuana. However, the Supreme Court determined that those facts weren’t relevant to its analysis, since the statute didn’t require impairment. Thus, a person who used marijuana weeks before operating a vehicle and was in no way under the influence—or aware of the presence of 11-carboxy-THC in his system—would be guilty of the same crime as a driver operating a vehicle under the influence of cocaine.