PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh woman who was charged with a DUI for using medical marijuana is now fighting her case – with the help of world-renowned pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht.
Wecht agreed to join the defense team of Beth Repp months after her car crash downtown led to these charges.
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Repp told Target 11’s Rick Earle she passed out while driving near the intersection of 6th Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard on Sept 22, 2019. Earlier that same day, three people died of drug overdoses on the South Side. Repp said paramedics suspected she had overdosed on opioids so they gave her Narcan.
After Repp regained consciousness, she told them she didn’t do any drugs like that – just medical marijuana. She has a card for it and had some the night before.
The hospital took a blood sample and police charged her with DUI under Pennsylvania’s “zero tolerance” law.
A month later, the blood work came back and she had traces of THC in her system, but that’s it.
Attorney Patrick Nightingale filed a motion claiming it’s unconstitutional to legalize medical marijuana yet charge drivers with DUI with no evidence of impairment. Wecht will be his expert witness.
“He'll be the one testifying and helping us build the record to demonstrate that merely having THC metabolites or low level of delta nine THC in your blood has no correlation to impairment whatsoever,” said Nightingale.
He’s hoping this case will lead to change in the law, and Repp’s trial is scheduled for August 2020.
Repp and her attorney said they are prepared to take this all the way to the state supreme court.
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