A three-judge panel of Commonwealth Court judges will hear the appeal today of a Clymer woman who was denied federal subsidized housing because she uses medical marijuana.
68-year-old Mary Cease left her Wilkes Barre home because she was a victim of domestic violence in 2018. She applied for federally-subsidized housing in Indiana County, but was denied because she wrote on her application that she uses medical marijuana.
Cease suffered back injuries decades ago while serving in the U.S. Navy and has metal rods in her back. She suffers from PTSD and chronic pain, and started using the medical marijuana on the recommendation of her doctor, because she feared she would become addicted to opioid pain relievers.
But because Section 8 housing is a federal program, and marijuana is a Schedule 1 substance along with heroin and other more serious drugs, her application was denied by the Housing Authority of Indiana County.
Cease, who makes less than $10,000 per year in Social Security payments, has appealed the decisions twice to the Housing Authority and been denied each time.
Her appeal will be argued today in the state capitol by attorney Judith Cassel of the Harrisburg law firm of Hawke McKeon & Sniscak, which took the case pro bono.
