“If there is any detectable amount of
THC or THC metabolites in your blood
you can be prosecuted and convicted of
driving under the infl uence.”
When you hear ‘driving under the influence’ you tend to
automatically assume the driver was impaired by alcohol
consumption.
However, due to recent law changes, there are increasing
numbers of cannabis DUI cases emerging, but there is a
difference: many of these drivers are not impaired.
In between working cases varying from harassment to
homicide, lawyer Patrick Nightingale occupies himself
with his work as executive director for Pittsburgh’s National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
We spoke to him about the medical cannabis legislation of
his hometown, and what rights patients have when on the
road.
“Pennsylvania introduced a medical marijuana bill in 2009
and I decided to add my voice.
“I’m a former prosecutor, a criminal defense attorney and
back then you didn’t have too many people like myself who
are professionals, coming out and speaking in support of
cannabis reform.
“The main issue is Pennsylvania being a zero-tolerance state
for THC metabolites. That means if there is any detectable
amount of THC or THC metabolites in your blood you can be
prosecuted and convicted of driving under the infl uence.
“There is absolutely no requirement for law enforcement to
prove impairment.”
Essentially, this means once an offi cer suspects a driver may
be in possession of legal medical marijuana or may have
access to medical marijuana, they can arrest them on DUI
charges, regardless of whether the suspect has actually
consumed cannabis or not.
The driver is then subjected to a blood test, and if there are
any traces of the psychoactive cannabis compound THC
in the blood sample, he or she can be convicted of driving
under the infl uence.
But what if they are not ‘under the infl uence?’
“It doesn’t matter, impairment is irrelevant,” says the legal
expert.
“Pennsylvanian medical marijuana patients are in desperate
need of a DUI reform at the very least.
“We’ve got a ten nanogram per milliliter THC limit for working
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