Marijuana Driving Accidents in Fort Myers: What to Know

By David B. Pittman, Esq., Founder, Pittman Law Firm, P.L. | Last updated May 12, 2026

Florida has no per se THC limit — no number on a blood test that automatically means the driver was impaired. That single fact changes everything about how a marijuana-DUI injury case works, and most clients sitting across from me in our Bonita Springs office do not know it when they walk in. They assume marijuana DUI works like alcohol DUI: a number on a test, a clean line, a predictable path. It does not.

If you were rear-ended at the light on Cleveland Avenue at Colonial Boulevard by a driver who reeked of cannabis and could not keep his story straight with the responding officer, this post is the one I would hand you. The legal questions are real, the practical complications are real, and the path to recovery is real — but you have to know what you are actually walking into before you talk to the other carrier.

What Florida law actually says about marijuana-impaired driving

Florida’s DUI statute, §316.193, applies to any “chemical or controlled substance,” not just alcohol. That sentence does most of the work in a marijuana case. The State does not have to prove a per-se number for THC the way it does the 0.08 BAC for alcohol. There is no per-se THC threshold in Florida law. Instead, the State has to prove that the driver’s “normal faculties” were impaired. That is a behavioral case: the officer’s observations, the field sobriety performance, the driver’s own admissions, and any drug-recognition evaluation done at the scene or the jail.

For the injured person bringing the civil claim, three statutes drive most of what happens after the crash:

• §768.81, Florida Statutes, modified comparative negligence. After the 2023 reform, if a jury finds you more than 50% at fault for your own injuries, you recover nothing. At 50% or below, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. In plain English: an impaired driver who plows into the back of your car is almost always going to carry the lion’s share of the fault, but the defense will still try to put a percentage on you for following distance, brake lights, or anything else they can argue. Read the statute.
• §95.11(4)(a), Florida Statutes, the two-year statute of limitations. The 2023 reform cut the negligence window from four years to two. If your crash happened on or after March 24, 2023, you have two years from the date of the crash to file suit. I have already seen people miss this. Read the statute.
• §627.736, Florida Statutes, PIP (Personal Injury Protection). Florida is a no-fault state, which means your own auto policy pays the first $10,000 of medical bills and lost wages no matter who caused the crash. You also have a fourteen-day window to seek initial medical care or your PIP can shut off entirely. Read the statute.

I will also flag §627.727, the uninsured and underinsured motorist statute, because in a marijuana-DUI case the at-fault driver is often carrying minimum limits or no insurance at all. Your own UM coverage may end up being the larger source of recovery. Read the statute.

Five marijuana-impairment crash types from our Fort Myers files

Every marijuana-DUI file I have opened in the last decade fits, more or less, into one of these five buckets. Knowing which bucket you are in shapes the whole case.

1. Rear-end at a light or stop sign. The classic. The impaired driver misjudges the closing distance and never lifts off the gas. We see this constantly at the Daniels Parkway and Six Mile Cypress Parkway intersection during the evening commute. The defense will try to put fault on you for an early brake or a non-working brake light; the police report and the vehicle data download usually settle that argument.
2. Lane-departure into oncoming traffic. Marijuana affects lane-keeping in a different way than alcohol does: less the obvious weaving you see with a drunk driver, more the slow drift. On McGregor Boulevard between the bridges, where the lanes are narrow and the curve is gentle, that slow drift turns into a head-on.
3. Failure to yield at an uncontrolled or partially controlled intersection. Impaired drivers misread protected turns and run rights-on-red without actually stopping. Cleveland Avenue is full of these.
4. Single-vehicle off-the-road, with a passenger plaintiff. The driver is the impaired party, the passenger is your client, and the recovery comes out of the driver’s own liability coverage and any UM your client carries. These files often involve teenage or young-adult clients.
5. The combination case, alcohol plus marijuana. The single most dangerous combination on the road. Toxicology comes back positive for both. The defense’s only real play in these cases is to argue your client’s percentage of fault is higher than zero. They almost never argue the impairment itself.

What makes these cases harder than a standard DUI injury claim

Here is what gets lost in the public conversation. A positive THC blood test, on its own, does not prove impairment at the time of the crash. THC metabolites linger in the body for days, sometimes weeks, after the last use. Someone who used marijuana lawfully at home Saturday night can test positive at a Tuesday-morning crash scene without being impaired at the moment of impact. The defense knows this and will lean on it.

That is why the cases I have tried and settled have always rested on more than the blood number. The officer’s observations matter: bloodshot eyes, the smell of cannabis in the car, the open container in the cup holder, the driver’s own statements. The field sobriety performance matters. The vehicle data matters too: speed, braking, steering input in the seconds before impact. A toxicology result alone is a thin reed. A toxicology result plus a behavioral record plus a reconstruction is a case.

The second complication is the criminal-versus-civil split. The State may decline to file DUI charges, or may file and lose, and that outcome does not control your civil case. The criminal standard is beyond a reasonable doubt. The civil standard is more likely than not. I have seen plenty of cases where the prosecutor walked away and our office still secured a full recovery on the civil side. Do not let a “no criminal charges” letter from the State Attorney’s Office convince you the impaired-driver case is dead.

The third complication is the insurance side. Some auto policies have intoxication or controlled-substance exclusions that the carrier will try to use against its own insured. That can actually help an injured third party, because it gives the injured party more grounds to pursue a bad-faith claim if the carrier mishandles things, but it also makes the early communication with the carrier matter more than usual.

A case from an Estero file

An Estero client was involved in an accident with a driver who had been drinking. He underwent neck surgery. The case settled for $500,000. Impairment cases — whether the substance is alcohol, marijuana, or a combination — tend to move better at mediation once the toxicology and the officer’s field notes are side by side on the table. The facts speak for themselves when they are organized correctly.

What to do if you have been hit by a marijuana-impaired driver in Fort Myers

This is the list I would give my own daughter if she called me from the side of the road on Pine Island Road tonight. It is short on purpose, and every item is something I have watched matter in a real case.

• Get medical care within fourteen days, even if you feel “mostly okay” the next morning. PIP under §627.736 requires it. I have watched soft-tissue injuries from a 35-mph rear-end turn into surgical cases six weeks later. The fourteen-day rule does not bend.
• Ask the responding officer, on the record, whether a Drug Recognition Evaluator was called. In Lee County, a DRE is sometimes available and sometimes not. If one was called, that report will be part of your civil file. If one was not, ask why, and make sure the question is in the body of the crash report.
• Photograph the inside of the other vehicle if you safely can. Officers do not always document the open container, the rolling tray, or the smell. Your phone photograph from the shoulder of I-75 near Alico Road is admissible. I have used these photos at mediation more than once.
• Write down what the other driver said in the first ten minutes. The admissions made before counsel arrives are often the strongest pieces of evidence in the file. “I only had one” or “I had a little earlier” lands differently in front of a jury than a polished deposition answer six months later.
• Pull your own auto-insurance declaration page and confirm whether you have UM and how much. If the at-fault driver is carrying the Florida minimum, your UM may be the policy that actually makes you whole. I have settled cases where the defendant’s $10,000 liability limit was a footnote and the client’s own $250,000 UM was the real recovery.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver’s carrier until you have talked to a lawyer. Not the day of, not the day after. Once the statement is on tape, it is on tape. Our office talks to the carrier on your behalf.
• Save the clothes you were wearing, the contents of your car, and any dashcam footage. Cars get totaled and towed and crushed faster than people think. Once it is gone, it is gone.

Key Takeaways

• Florida has no per-se THC limit. The criminal case turns on impaired normal faculties, not on a number.
• A positive THC blood test alone does not prove impairment at the moment of impact, because THC metabolites linger for days. The civil case has to be built on behavior, observation, and reconstruction.
• The statute of limitations for a Florida negligence claim is now two years from the crash date under §95.11(4)(a). Half of what it was before the 2023 reform.
• Under §768.81 modified comparative negligence, a finding that you were more than 50% at fault wipes out your recovery. The defense will try to put a number on you. Plan for it.
• Your own UM coverage under §627.727 is often the larger source of recovery in a marijuana-DUI case where the at-fault driver is underinsured. Pull your declarations page early.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Is there a legal THC limit for driving in Florida the way there is for alcohol?
No. Florida has the 0.08 BAC presumption for alcohol under Chapter 316, but the marijuana DUI statute has no per-se THC number. The State has to prove your normal faculties were impaired, which is a behavioral and observational case rather than a chemistry-test case.

Q2. Does my medical marijuana card protect me from a DUI charge in Fort Myers?
No. A Florida medical-marijuana ID is not a defense to a DUI. The legal question is whether you were impaired while operating the vehicle, not whether your use of the substance was lawful at home. I have had plenty of medical-card holders sit across the desk from me after a charge.

Q3. If the other driver tested positive for THC, do I automatically win my injury case?
A positive THC result helps, but it does not by itself prove impairment at the time of the crash. THC metabolites can stay in the body for days or weeks. We pair the toxicology with the officer’s observations, the crash-scene evidence, and a reconstruction to build the impairment story.

Q4. How long do I have to file a personal injury claim after a marijuana-DUI crash in Florida?
Two years from the date of the crash, under §95.11(4)(a) as amended in 2023. That is half the four-year window that existed before the reform. Wrongful-death claims carry their own two-year clock from the date of death.

Q5. What does it cost to talk to your office about a marijuana-impaired driver case?
Nothing. We offer a free consultation, and we work on a contingency basis. There is no fee unless we recover for you.

Call our Fort Myers office today

If you or someone in your family was hit by an impaired driver anywhere in Lee or Collier County, including Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Estero, Naples, and Lehigh Acres, call our office at 239-992-8259 for a free consultation. We will listen, we will pull the police report and the carrier’s policy, and we will tell you straight what we think the case is worth. There is no fee unless we recover for you.

About the Author

Pittman Law Firm, P.L., founded by David B. Pittman, Esq., has handled personal injury cases in Fort Myers and across Lee County for more than thirty years. The firm’s Fort Myers presence handles a steady stream of serious-injury work along the Daniels Parkway, Six Mile Cypress, McGregor Boulevard, Cleveland Avenue, and Summerlin Road corridors, and along I-75 between Estero and Bell Tower. Our office represents injured clients across Lee and Collier Counties, with a particular focus on commercial-vehicle, complex-liability, and serious-injury cases.

Between undergraduate at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina and a JD from the University of South Carolina School of Law, David built the foundation for a personal injury practice that now carries AV-Preeminent status with Martindale-Hubbell and membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Thirty years of cases in Lee and Collier Counties have shaped how he reads a police report and how he prepares a file for trial.

David has held a Florida real estate broker license for twenty-five years, a credential that shapes how the firm reads the property side of premises cases. The firm handles personal injury cases across Lee and Collier Counties, serving Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Naples, Cape Coral, Estero, and Lehigh Acres, with offices at Windsor Place in Bonita Springs (main) and Fort Myers (satellite). Call 239-992-8259 for a free consultation.

Attorney advertising. This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship with Pittman Law Firm, P.L. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. For advice on your particular situation, contact our office to arrange a free consultation.