Pennsylvania lawmakers have advanced a pair of bills meant to prevent police from charging medical cannabis patients with impaired driving without proof of intoxication.
The Senate version of the legislation from Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R) cleared the Senate Transportation Committee, with amendments, in a unanimous vote last week.
Meanwhile, a House bill sponsored by Rep. Christopher Rabb (D), which is drafted differently but meant to achieve the same goal, passed that chamber’s Transportation Committee, 14-10.
Bartolotta said the measure—an earlier version of which also advanced last year—is designed to close a “loophole” in Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis law that currently permits law enforcement to arrest and prosecute patients for driving under the influence of marijuana without demonstrating that they are actively impaired.
“In 2016, we legalized the use of medicinal cannabis for a myriad of conditions. We were very careful with how the language was crafted in an attempt to avoid unintended consequences,” the senator said during the committee meeting. “Since that time, it has become very obvious that we overlooked one very important aspect.”
She pointed out that the majority of states, including some that have not legalized medical marijuana, require proof of impairment for DUI cases. But Pennsylvania’s law maintains that cannabis is considered a Schedule I drug for the purposes of impaired driving, regardless of a person’s status as a state-registered medical marijuana patient.
That’s led to situations where people have faced DUI charges after being stopped by police, identifying as a medical cannabis patient and then being required to submit to a drug test that showed the presence of inactive THC metabolites, which can stay in a person’s systems for days or weeks after using marijuana.
“No one should be put through this situation if they are legally and responsibly using medical cannabis in Pennsylvania,” Bartolotta said. “It is past time that we correct this egregious oversight.”
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