Profile For Michael D.

As a physician and medical marijuana certifier, I feel obligated to speak out: Pennsylvania’s DUI laws for medical marijuana users are not just outdated—they're scientifically indefensible and morally wrong.

Under current PA law, a medical marijuana patient can be charged with DUI simply for having inactive THC metabolites in their system—even days or weeks after last using—with no evidence of impairment. That means you can be completely sober, pass every field sobriety test, and still get hit with a criminal charge. Why? Because the law doesn’t distinguish between impairment and presence.

This is not how science works, and it’s not how justice should work either.

THC metabolites like carboxy-THC are not psychoactive. They’re just leftovers—chemical footprints showing you used cannabis at some point in the past. They have zero correlation with impairment, especially in regular medical users. PA’s law treats medical patients like criminals for following their doctor’s orders.

Imagine applying this same logic to prescription opioids or benzos. We’d have half the state in jail.

Worse still, this law puts professional drivers, including CDL holders, in an impossible situation. Use your medication legally and risk your license? Or suffer without treatment?

It’s time for to demand change. PA’s marijuana DUI statute isn’t protecting the public. It’s punishing the sick, ignoring science, and turning law-abiding patients into felons.

I urge PA truckers to call their lawmakers and for law enforcement to follow the actual evidence—and for anyone affected by this broken system to speak out.

— Dr. Michael Duplessie Medical Marijuana Physician https://michaelduplessie.com