After a Nevada DUI arrest, you are required to take a chemical blood test or breath test. Driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or higher is “per se” unlawful in Nevada even if you are sober and unimpaired.
If the police suspect you took drugs, however, you must take the blood test since breathalyzers detect only alcohol. Even though recreational marijuana is now lawful in Nevada, driving under the influence of marijuana remains a crime.
If you refuse to take a chemical test at all, police can obtain a warrant and physically force you to submit to the blood test. Refusing also triggers a driver’s license revocation for at least one year – even if your DUI case gets dropped.
There are advantages and disadvantages to choosing the blood test over the breath test, and vice versa. Either way, there are many ways to challenge the results of each.
In this article, our Las Vegas drunk driving attorneys will address the following key issues regarding Nevada DUI blood tests:
- 1. When Blood is Required
- 2. Your Driver’s License
- 3. Failing Results
- 4. Passing Results
- 5. Refusals
- 6. Time Limits
- 7. Independent Testing
- 8. Costs
- 9. Challenging the Results
- 10. Blood vs. Breath
- 11. Urine Tests
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Additional Reading
1. When Blood is Required
In Nevada, you must submit to an evidentiary blood test if the police officers arrest you for “drugged driving.” This is because breath tests detect only alcohol, not controlled substances.
If you are suspected of “drunk driving,” you can elect to take either:
- an evidentiary breath test or
- a blood test.
However, if you are unconscious (such as after a car accident), the arresting officer will order that a blood sample be taken.
If you are on anticoagulants or have hemophilia, you are exempt from taking evidentiary blood tests. Instead, the police can order you to take a breath test or a urine test if a breath test is unavailable or drugs are suspected.1
First-time DUI convictions are misdemeanors that carry a 185-day license suspension of driving privileges.
2. Your Driver’s License
If you elect to take the blood test following a Nevada DUI arrest, you can keep your license for a few weeks until if/when the blood test results come back as 0.08% or higher. If this happens, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles will mail you a notice of revocation.
You then have seven days to request a DMV hearing to contest the license revocation. Meanwhile, you can continue driving pending the results of the DMV hearing, which may be another month or two away. Your defense attorney can appear at this hearing on your behalf.
Note that the DMV hearing is an administrative proceeding that is completely separate from the criminal case. You can win the DMV hearing and lose the criminal case, and vice versa. The only way to avoid a license revocation is to win both the DMV hearing and the criminal case.2
3. Failing Results
Nevada law prohibits driving with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08%. Even if you were driving safely and seemed sober, you can still be convicted of DUI for having a BAC of 0.08% or higher.
Note that drivers under 21 are held to a stricter standard: They can be convicted of DUI for driving with a BAC of 0.02% or higher. (Learn more about underage DUI.)
As the following table shows, Nevada law also makes it “per se” illegal to drive with certain blood levels of various drugs:
| Drug | Unlawful Blood Levels while Driving in Nevada |
| Amphetamine | 100 ng/mL |
| Cocaine | 50 ng/mL |
| Cocaine metabolite | 50 ng/mL |
| Heroin | 50 ng/mL |
| Heroin metabolite: Morphine | 50 ng/mL |
| Heroin metabolite: 6-monoacetyl morphine | 10 ng/mL |
| Lysergic acid diethylamide | 10 ng/mL |
| Marijuana (only for third- or successive DUIs in a seven-year period) | 2 ng/mL |
| Marijuana metabolite (only for third- or successive DUIs in a seven-year period) | 5 ng/mL |
| Methamphetamine (Meth) | 100 ng/mL |
| Phencyclidine | 10 ng/mL |
Nevada DUI law does not establish a specific “per se” lawful limit for many common prescription medications, such as Xanax (alprazolam) or Ambien (zolpidem). There is also no “per se” DUI limit for marijuana in first-time or second-time DUI cases.
In such “drugged driving” cases where there is no “per se” lawful limit, simply having these drugs in your system is not automatically a crime. To convict you, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the drugs in your blood actually impaired your ability to drive safely.3
4. Passing Results
Even if you have lawful levels of drugs or alcohol in your system, you can still be convicted of DUI in Nevada as long as you are driving impaired.4 However, prosecutors have a much more difficult time proving guilt in these cases unless you are a “lightweight” with no tolerance.
Oftentimes, the D.A. will drop DUI cases where your BAC was below 0.08%.
5. Refusals
If you refuse the officer’s initial request for a voluntary chemical breath- or blood test following a Nevada DUI arrest, the police will immediately confiscate your driver’s license and apply for a warrant or court order to administer the blood test.
Then, once the warrant or court order is issued, police can use necessary “reasonable force” on you to carry out a forced blood draw. The only time police can make a warrantless blood draw without your consent is if a true exigency exists that makes it impracticable to get a warrant.5
In addition, refusing to submit to a blood test when required carries a one-year license revocation – even if the DUI charges get dropped.6 This license revocation increases to three years if you previously refused to take a DUI blood test in the last seven years.7
If your DUI case goes to trial, the prosecution can admit evidence that you refused the test.8
There are several methods to contest the results of a DUI blood test.
6. Time Limits
Nevada police can order up to three blood draws within five hours of the DUI arrest. Though only blood tests from within the first two hours post-arrest are automatically admissible as “per se” evidence of an unlawful BAC level.
If your blood test is taken after the two-hour mark, the prosecutor loses this automatic presumption. Instead, they must prove you were actually impaired at the time of driving, which is significantly harder to do.9
7. Independent Testing
In Nevada, you can have your DUI blood samples independently tested. This is sometimes called a “blood split.”
Getting an independent test is highly recommended because it can potentially show that the blood test results reported by law enforcement were unreliable, mishandled, or inaccurate.
8. Costs
If you get convicted of DUI in Nevada, you will be responsible for paying all blood test costs. This includes fees for any witnesses at the criminal trial or DMV hearing who are necessary because of the blood test.
Witnesses cost at least:
- $100 an hour plus
- $50 an hour for traveling.10
Unlike breath tests, blood tests can detect narcotics.
9. Challenging the Results
Similar to California’s approach with Title 17, Nevada law imposes strict regulations that police and chemical testers must follow when conducting evidentiary blood tests and interpreting the results. If we can demonstrate that the state may have faltered in just one of these areas, your entire DUI case might be dismissed.
The following are just seven defenses we may use to challenge the validity of Nevada DUI blood test results:
- The blood testing equipment was either broken, not properly maintained, or otherwise faulty.
- The phlebotomist, registered nurse, or technician who administered or tested the blood was not properly certified.
- The blood test was taken too long after the initial arrest to determine whether you were under the influence.
- There was a break in the chain-of-custody in the blood, and someone may have switched the samples or contaminated it.
- The blood fermented after collection, which means it can create its own alcohol and yield falsely high results.
- The phlebotomist sterilized the blood draw site with an alcohol-based product, which could have caused an inaccurately high BAC reading.
- The blood was stored improperly, or there were inadequate levels of anticoagulants and preservatives in the vial.
If we can show prosecutors that the state’s evidence is too weak to prevail at trial, prosecutors may agree to reduce the criminal charges or even dismiss the case outright.11
10. Blood vs. Breath
The following chart compares breath tests and blood tests in Nevada DUI cases:
| NEVADA LAW | DUI Blood Tests | DUI Breath Tests |
| Accuracy | Generally more accurate | Less accurate, can be affected by acid reflux, GERD, mouth alcohol, and more |
| Invasiveness | Invasive, requires blood draw | Non-invasive, requires breathing into a device |
| Time to results | Longer, typically weeks | Immediate results |
| Administration | Requires medical professional | Can be administered by law enforcement |
| How it measures alcohol | Direct measurement of blood alcohol content (BAC) | Estimates BAC based on breath alcohol content |
| Detects drugs? | Yes | No |
| Retention of sample | Sample can be retained for future testing | No sample retention |
| Refusal consequences | Driver’s license suspension | Driver’s license suspension |
11. Urine Tests
There are circumstances where you may be unable to provide a blood sample following a DUI arrest in Nevada. Examples are:
- The police have no phlebotomist on hand,
- You are on anticoagulants (such as for blood clotting conditions), or
- You have hemophilia.
If a blood test is not feasible, you can opt for a breath test or a urine test instead. Though if you are suspected of driving under the influence of drugs, you must take a urine test since breath tests detect only alcohol.
Urine tests are not as accurate as breath or blood tests and may give false positives. Urine tests can also detect alcohol that was consumed a full 24 hours earlier and therefore had zero impact on your recent driving.
If you do take a urine test in your DUI case, your attorney may be able to contest the result in court.12
You are not entitled to speak with an attorney prior to taking an evidentiary breath or blood test for a Nevada DUI arrest.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to my driver’s license if I take a blood test after a DUI arrest?
If you take a blood test, you can keep your license for a few weeks until the results come back. If your BAC is 0.08% or higher, the DMV will mail you a revocation notice. You then have seven days to request a DMV hearing to contest the suspension, and you can continue driving while waiting for that hearing.
Can police force me to take a blood test if I refuse?
Yes. If you refuse a blood test, police will get a warrant and can use reasonable force to draw your blood. Refusing also triggers an automatic one-year license suspension, even if your DUI charges get dropped. The suspension increases to three years if you refused a test in the past seven years.
How long after my arrest can police take my blood for DUI testing?
Police can order up to three blood draws within five hours of your arrest. However, only blood tests taken within the first two hours automatically count as evidence of illegal BAC levels. Tests taken after two hours require prosecutors to prove you were actually impaired while driving, which is much harder for them to do.
What drug levels in my blood are illegal for driving in Nevada?
Nevada has specific illegal blood levels for various drugs, such as 100 ng/mL for amphetamine and meth, 50 ng/mL for cocaine and heroin, and 10 ng/mL for PCP and LSD. For marijuana, the limit is 2 ng/mL, but only for third or repeat DUI offenses. For prescription drugs like Xanax, there’s no set limit – prosecutors must prove the drugs actually impaired your driving.
Additional Reading
For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:
- Delays in DUI blood testing: Impact on cannabis DUI assessments – Traffic Injury Prevention.
- Variability of the Blood/Breath Alcohol Ratio in Drinking Drivers – ASTM Journal of Forensic Sciences.
- Breath and Blood Alcohol Concentration Measurement in DUI Cases – Forensic Metrology.
- Drunk Driving, Blood, and Breath: The Impact of Birchfield v. North Dakota – Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy.
- Drunk Drivers and Vampire Cops: The Gold Standard – New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement.
See our related articles, Can police do a forced blood draw in a Nevada DUI arrest?, field sobriety tests and sealing criminal records for DUI offenses.
Legal References
- NRS 484C.160 (Implied consent law). See, for example, State v. Hiatt (Nev. 1996) 920 P.2d 116. See also Michael Scott Davidson, Stopped for a suspected DUI? You could face an immediate blood draw, Las Vegas Review-Journal (September 6, 2022)(“State law gives police a two-hour window to collect a blood or breath sample from a suspect if they want it used as evidence in a DUI case…Nevada’s largest law enforcement agency will soon expand a program to ensure officers beat the clock. Starting in October, medical professionals will patrol with the Metropolitan Police Department seven nights a week to collect blood samples at traffic stops, rather than wait until a suspect is taken to jail.”).
- See Office of Administrative Hearings, Nevada DMV.
- NRS 484C.110. NRS 483.462.
- NRS 484C.110.
- NRS 484C.160. See Missouri v. McNeely (2013) 569 U.S. 141 (if a DUI suspect does not consent to a blood draw, police must obtain a warrant unless there is an actual emergency such as an accident or severe injury that makes getting a warrant impractical). Byars v. State (Nev. 2014) 336 P.3d 939 (“In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Missouri v. McNeely, we conclude that the natural dissipation of marijuana in the blood stream does not constitute a per se exigent circumstance justifying a warrantless search.“).
- NRS 484C.210.
- NRS 484C.210.
- NRS 484C.240.
- NRS 484C.160. See, for example, Becker v. State Dep’t of Corr. (Nev.App. 2024) No. 86125-COA (unpublished).
- NRS 484C.250. See, for example, State v. Eighth Judicial Dist. Court of Nev. (Nev. 2011) 267 P.3d 777.
- Hadland SE, Levy S. Objective Testing: Urine and Other Drug Tests. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2016 Jul;25(3):549-65. doi: 10.1016/j.chc.2016.02.005. Epub 2016 Mar 30. PMID: 27338974; PMCID: PMC4920965.