New Bill Would Protect PA Medical Cannabis Patients From DUIs

PENNSYLVANIA — Two Pennsylvania lawmakers recently introduced a bill to protect people who legally use medical marijuana from being charged with driving under the influence.

State Reps. Todd Polinchock, R- Chalfont, and Chris Rabb, D-Philadelphia, are cosponsoring the bill to update the state’s “antiquated” laws that “allow patients to obtain needed medications, but unfairly prohibit them from operating a vehicle.”

Pennsylvania’s current DUI laws make no distinction between medical and recreational marijuana use, leaving registered patients at risk of being prosecuted for having any trace of THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, in their blood, the representatives said.

Traces of THC can be detectable for up to six weeks after marijuana is used, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

“As the law is written today, I could go to jail for six months for driving four weeks after swallowing a few drops of cannabis tincture sold at a dispensary licensed by the very same government that cashes in on tax revenue from the sale of medical cannabis,” Rabb said. “That’s perverse. And it’s also easily corrected.”

More than 343,000 people in Pennsylvania, about 2.7 percent of the state’s population, were registered medical marijuana patients, as of May, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

Nearly three dozen other states allow some form of cannabis use and many have updated their DUI laws, the lawmakers said in a memo to their colleagues.

“Unfortunately, Pennsylvania remains a state with a zero-tolerance policy on this subject,” they said.

Rabb, who is a medical marijuana patient, said it’s “perverse” that he and others could face driving under the influence charges and jail time for taking “miniscule” amounts of a drug licensed for medical use by the state.

Polinchock said his and Rabb’s proposed legislation “simply puts medical cannabis on the same level as other prescription pain relievers.”

Medical marijuana “helps many Pennsylvanians, including many of our seniors,” Polinchock said. “It’s time to remove the stigma and treat this drug as we do others.”

Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in 2016. Since then, “we failed to provide these patients the same privileges afforded to others who have legal prescriptions for a scheduled medication,” Polinchock and Rabb wrote.

Republican state Sen. Camera Bartolotta has introduced a similar bill in the Pennsylvania Senate that would require proof of active impairment before a registered medical marijuana patient could be charged with driving under the influence.