New Medical Marijuana DUI Bill Will Make Police Have To Prove Actual Impairment In Pennsylvania

As years pass by, more people are beginning to see how beneficial medical marijuana can be. For this reason, many doctors are now actually prescribing medical marijuana to people to help them with a list of various health problems. 

Since medical marijuana is something that is newer to people and not everyone is used to it yet, not every state has the best laws put in place yet to deal with drivers who use medical marijuana. One of these states is Pennsylvania, which is looking at various ways to deal with drivers and police when it comes to the use of medical marijuana. Below, you can get a better breakdown of what Pennsylvania wants to do when it comes to stricter laws for medical marijuana DUI:

  • Medical Marijuana

  • The Issue For Medical Marijuana Users

  • Risks Medical Marijuana Drivers Face

  • New Bill Introduced

  • Why The Bill Is Important

  • How Police Would Need To Handle People

  • How This Bill Can Benefit People

  • Other Info To Know About The Bill

  • Opposing View Of The Bill

  • Contact A Lawyer If You’re Convicted

Medical Marijuana

Medical marijuana is becoming more popular in the United States as the years pass by. In the states of Pennsylvania, they recently made medical marijuana usage legal in the year 2016. With this change, dispensaries began opening throughout the state in the year 2018. With more people beginning to use medical marijuana, many issues have begun to arise like anything else new in life.

The Issue For Medical Marijuana Users

The issue with this is people are not too sure yet how to deal with medical marijuana when it comes to certain aspects of our everyday lives, such as driving. Since the legalization of medical marijuana has been put into place, the zero-tolerance DUI law has not changed yet in the state of Pennsylvania. This creates the need for new laws to be put in place as more people are beginning to turn to medical marijuana to help their health issues.

When drivers use medical marijuana, even if it was the night prior to being pulled over, THC levels can remain elevated in the blood. This puts all medical marijuana patients at risk of receiving a medical marijuana DUI. This is an issue that many people feel need to be fixed.

Risks Medical Marijuana Drivers Face

Since signs of marijuana use are still in your blood even days after using it, this puts all medical marijuana patients at risk when they are driving in Pennsylvania. Since they can get a DUI for this, they can even be arrested! Even though it is completely legal for them to use as it was prescribed to them, and even if the driver is completely sober while driving, they will still face the risk.

With Pennsylvania’s zero-tolerance law that they go by, medical marijuana users are at risk since they do not differentiate medical marijuana use from recreational use. As a result of this, patients are at risk of being convicted, prosecuted, and arrested. This is an issue that many people feel need to be fixed through the addition of a new bill.

New Bill Introduced

With this issue occurring, Pennsylvania is considering a new bill in favor of medical marijuana drivers. The bill that is being considered would make legal medical marijuana exempt from current DUI laws in the state. While this new bill would help protect medical marijuana patients, all other drivers in the state would still be subject to the state’s zero-tolerance law.

Why The Bill Is Important

This bill is important for many reasons! Since medical marijuana is a legal medicine, people should not be getting convicted of a crime for doing as they’re told. When used safely, medical marijuana will not get in the way of the driver’s ability to drive their vehicle. Patients have fought for a long time to get medical cannabis legalized as it can benefit them and treat the health conditions that they face. They should not have to worry about a criminal conviction for it now.

How Police Would Need To Handle People

With the bill proposal that currently stands, police would need to properly handle the situation as they approach medical marijuana patients. To do so, they would need to prove that the state-licensed patient is impaired while driving instead of proving that they have used marijuana in the past few days or weeks. This will keep the police away from bothering patients as they would have the right to use the marijuana they are prescribed while not driving.

How This Bill Can Benefit People

This bill would provide many benefits to the patients that use medical cannabis. This bill would prevent patients from being able to be arrested, convicted, or prosecuted for using the marijuana that they are legally allowed to use if it isn’t affecting their ability to operate their vehicle safely. 

It also provides people with peace of mind as they will not always have to worry. People will not have to constantly fear of being charged with a DUI as they will be safe under the law.

Other Info To Know About The Bill

However, if the patient using medical marijuana is driving erratically or showing signs of impairment, they can still be charged with a DUI. After all, people do still need to be safe when driving. But if you are pulled over for a completely unrelated reason, such as a broken headlight, you will not have to worry about getting a DUI since you are medically using the marijuana.

Opposing View Of The Bill

While many people are for this bill, some people are against it for a few reasons. Some people fear that it can legally put a lot of impaired drivers on the road, risking the lives of themselves and others. There are many statistics available that show how this would be untrue. With that being said, evidence of THC affecting a driver is still not very solid.

Contact A Lawyer If You’re Convicted

Contact us if you are ever given a DUI. Especially if you are a medical marijuana patient, Wyland Law Group is a trusted law firm that is looking to help you stay safe.