Medical Cannabis and DUI Law in PA

You are likely aware that we have a "zero tolerance" DUI law in Pennsylvania that is not evidence-based and puts cannabis patients at risk. Essentially, as an MMJ patient, if I am pulled over/suspected of being intoxicated while driving/involved in a car accident/etc. and am taken to a hospital for urine or serum drug testing, a positive screen for THC metabolites can lead to my prosecution and conviction for DUI, even though I may not have been impaired at all.

It is well understood that THC metabolites may persist in the blood or urine of regular cannabis users for days / week / months, and this type of testing does not reliably indicate impairment, nor does it correlate with level of impairment.

There is currently a bill in the PA Senate Transportation Committee called SB167 that would rectify this issue in the law. In its current form, it is a short and sweet, non-controversial bill - less than 3 pages long. (You can find the text of the bill here: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billinfo/billinfo.cfm?syear=2021&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=0167)

I'll be contacting all of the members of the Senate Transportation committee and asking them to support this bill. Please consider doing the same if you are in agreement. Here are the senators in that committee. You can click on a Senator’s name and then message them through their individual webpage:

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/cteeInfo/Index.cfm?Code=19&CteeBody=S&mobile_choice=suppress

Thank you for reading!

-Dr Jen Minkovich