Aug 28, 2018 3 min read

Mary Cease’s plans to live where she wants are going up in smoke, thanks to two conflicting sets of medical marijuana laws.

A report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week detailed the quandary facing Cease, a 66-year-old resident of Indiana County. She applied for a medical marijuana card in December from the state, to use that source of treatment for her medical condition, and was approved. Pain from a number of back surgeries prevented her from working, the newspaper said, adding that she also was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress.

Cease resides in a public housing apartment complex in rural Clymer, but would like to relocate – and this is where the conflict begins. She wants to move into Section 8 housing in an urban area, but the Indiana County Housing Authority has rejected her application for a Section 8 voucher. The housing authority is federally funded, and federal law declares marijuana to be illegal in any form.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development oversees housing authorities and provides guidelines on medical marijuana. HUD, according to the news source, issued a nationwide memo in 2011 saying, “based on federal law, new admissions of medical marijuana users are prohibited” in public housing and voucher programs.

Then, in a follow-up memo three years later, the department advised owners to “deny admission to assisted housing for any household with a member determined to be illegally using a controlled substance, e.g., marijuana.”

Judith Cassel, an attorney from Harrisburg, is representing Cease pro bono, the P-G said. Cassel argues that while her client is new to the Section 8 voucher program, she is already a public housing resident, not a “new admission” – and that the 2011 HUD memo said housing authorities “have discretion to determine, on a case-by-case basis, the appropriateness of program termination of existing residents for the use of medical marijuana.”

Cease served in the Navy for a short time before getting a medical discharge and, because of health issues, has not worked for 15-plus years. She moved into the Indiana County apartment, a place she shares with her dog, three years ago.

Now she would like to move into a more comfortable facility, and should be allowed to do that. Federal laws must be amended to line up with the 30 states, plus District of Columbia, where medical marijuana is legal. This issue has come up in states that legalized the medical form of the substance before Pennsylvania – where it was approved in May 2016.

Now there is a movement at the federal level to align these laws. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-District of Columbia, a nonvoting delegate of the U.S. House, introduced a bill in June that would allow medical or recreational marijuana use in federally assisted housing in states that have approved it.

There are health risks associated with the substance, of course, but health benefits as well for people with certain health conditions. People like Mary Cease, who should not be excluded because of conflicting laws and guidelines.