Veh. Code, § 23217 · Article 2. Offenses Involving Alcohol and Drugs
Veh. Code, § 23217
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
The Legislature finds and declares that some repeat offenders of the prohibition against driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, when they are addicted or when they have too much alcohol in their systems, may be escaping the intent of the Legislature to punish the offender with progressively greater severity if the offense is repeated one or more times within a 10-year period. This situation may occur when a conviction for a subsequent offense occurs before a conviction is obtained on an earlier offense.
The Legislature further finds and declares that the timing of court proceedings should not permit a person to avoid aggravated mandatory minimum penalties for multiple separate offenses occurring within a 10-year period. It is the intent of the Legislature to provide that a person be subject to enhanced mandatory minimum penalties for multiple offenses within a period of 10 years, regardless of whether the convictions are obtained in the same sequence as the offenses had been committed.
Nothing in this section requires consideration of judgment of conviction in a separate proceeding that is entered after the judgment in the present proceeding, except as it relates to violation of probation.
Nothing in this section or the amendments to Section 23540, 23546, 23550, 23560, 23566, 23622, or 23640 made by Chapter 1205 of the Statutes of 1984 affects the penalty for a violation of Section 23152 or 23153 occurring prior to January 1, 1985.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2004, Ch. 550, Sec. 11. Effective January 1, 2005.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=23217.
- Text hash
- sha256 b833d032c26f082a79cf2755df53e190ee6b375c221b4ad4a9b0a00dccbebd2f
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Vehicle Code
- Veh. Code, § 23152Printed as Section 23152 or 23153
- Veh. Code, § 23153Printed as Section 23152 or 23153
- Veh. Code, § 23540Printed as Section 23540, 23546, 23550, 23560, 23566, 23622, or 23640
- Veh. Code, § 23546Printed as Section 23540, 23546, 23550, 23560, 23566, 23622, or 23640
- Veh. Code, § 23550Printed as Section 23540, 23546, 23550, 23560, 23566, 23622, or 23640
- Veh. Code, § 23560Printed as Section 23540, 23546, 23550, 23560, 23566, 23622, or 23640
- Veh. Code, § 23566Printed as Section 23540, 23546, 23550, 23560, 23566, 23622, or 23640
- Veh. Code, § 23622Printed as Section 23540, 23546, 23550, 23560, 23566, 23622, or 23640
- Veh. Code, § 23640Printed as Section 23540, 23546, 23550, 23560, 23566, 23622, or 23640
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.