(La Porte, IN) - It's hard to tell what was affecting a driver arrested last night in La Porte more: the beer or the marijuana.

 

Ricky Cooke, 69, has been charged with Operating a Vehicle while Intoxicated.

 

After 7 p.m. that night, a patrol officer noticed a car headed northbound on Pine Lake Avenue near IN-39 without its headlights on.

 

The officer performed a U-turn to pursue the driver, who was promptly pulled over.

 

Police said Cooke, after stepping out of the vehicle, was staggering and using his car to hold himself up while claiming to have only consumed three beers.

 

His perceived high level of intoxication could have been due to marijuana, given the smell of raw substance on his person, described by the officer as “overwhelming" and not helped by the smell of burnt pot on the driver’s breath.

 

Cooke told the officer he smoked marijuana with his last beer about 30 minutes prior to being stopped. He had a blood alcohol level of .101 percent, or slightly above the legal .08 percent limit.