Two Interesting Stories From Gainesville Involving Marijuana Possession, DUI And Nitrous Oxide

There were two interesting stories in the Gainesville paper recently dealing with Florida drug arrests and a DUI with property damage involving nitrous oxide. Both arrests were not your typical run of the mill situations even though DUI and possession of marijuana under 20 grams both seem fairly routine.

In the DUI case the arrestee allegedly told Gainesville police that he had post traumatic stress disorder and was inhaling nitrous oxide to deal with his condition. The 45-year-old Tennessee resident was allegedly inhaling from a can of air spray that is used to blow dust off computer keyboards and it also contains nitrous oxide. While inhaling the spray he reportedly crashed into a parked car that was unoccupied at the time of the accident. Timothy Martin Shields was observed by an off-duty officer inhaling from the can, which Shields denied. He said he did not inhale any of the nitrous oxide until after he ran into the parked car. He was charged with DUI with property damage on top of inhaling a harmful chemical.

The other unrelated case involved two teenagers who were pulled over and police discovered less than 20 grams of marijuana in their possession. That is a misdemeanor but the pair was actually charged with two felonies. The reason is that the pair was traveling to Florida from Ohio and that led to a felony charge of transporting a controlled substance into the state and maintaining a drug vehicle. They also were charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and misdemeanor marijuana possession.

The two nineteen-year-olds were stopped for speeding. Officers asked for permission to search the vehicle but the two men denied that request. After a K9 officer arrived on the scene, the dog alerted police to the presence of drugs in the car. At that point a small amount of marijuana was discovered.