Pennsylvania Court Rules Medicinal Cannabis Is Still a Controlled Substance |

A Pennsylvania court ruled this month against a medical cannabis patient who had appealed a 2021 conviction of driving under the influence.

The York Daily Record provides background on the case of Franklin Dabney, a 29-year-old from Hanover, Pennsylvania, who was arrested in 2020 after a Pennsylvania State Police Officer drove him in an unmarked vehicle at 93 miles per hour in a Zone 65 was.

The officer “noticed a ‘strong odor of raw marijuana’ emanating from the vehicle,” reported the York Daily Record, prompting Dabney to “[take] out a medical marijuana card and [state] that the smell was probably coming from his clothes.”

“Law enforcement conducted an unprovoked search of the vehicle and found flakes of suspected marijuana near the center console and passenger seat, and a shopping bag containing three bags of weed,” the Daily Record reported. “Dabney, police said, had widened and red eyes. He also showed signs of impairment on standard on-site sobriety tests. Police arrested Dabney and took him to Gettysburg Hospital, where a blood test revealed he had active marijuana compounds and metabolites in his system. Prosecutors later agreed to exclude the weed found in his car from evidence and dropped three of the charges against him.”

A little over a year after the arrest, a Pennsylvania judge “found Dabney guilty of drink driving, negligent driving and speeding and sentenced him to six months probation, 10 days house arrest and a fine of nearly $1,115”, according to the Daily Record, which sparked the appeal.

According to the newspaper, Dabney and his attorneys “claimed that medical marijuana is not a Schedule 1 controlled substance in Pennsylvania and that law enforcement should be barred from charging and prosecuting him for two subsections of DUI,” and if so, DUI law would conflict with the state’s medical cannabis law.

Last week, a three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed that argument.

In the decision, Judge Deborah A. Kunselman said that “medical marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance” and that “no conflict between the [Medical Marijuana Act] and the vehicle code.”

“There is no need for ‘medical marijuana’ to be listed as a Schedule I controlled substance because medical marijuana is marijuana, specifically marijuana ‘for certified medical use,'” Kunselman wrote, adding that the Medical Marijuana Act “marijuana did not remove from the list the Schedule I Controlled Substances List.”

In addition, the panel dismissed Dabney’s claim that the State Police Officer wrongly concluded that there was probable cause to arrest him for DUI.

“We find no merit in this matter. Our Supreme Court has ruled that because of the MMA, “the smell of marijuana alone does not constitute a probable cause for conducting a groundless search of a vehicle, but rather may be considered as a factor in considering the totality of the circumstances.” Kunselman wrote.

The case could have far-reaching implications for Pennsylvania’s more than 400,000 medical cannabis patients.

As the York Daily Record noted, the ruling “has precedent, meaning it will have binding effect on future cases in Pennsylvania,” and it remains unclear whether Dabney will appeal again.

“It’s certainly something we’re considering,” said Dabney’s attorney, Christian DeFilippo, as quoted by the York Daily Record. “I want to give him some time to make that decision.”