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Medical marijuana: Is Cannabis a Rx for PA?

HARRISBURG, Pa — State lawmakers are considering a bill to make medical marijuana legal in Pennsylvania. The state senate may even vote on the bill any day now....

HARRISBURG, Pa — State lawmakers are considering a bill to make medical marijuana legal in Pennsylvania. The state senate may even vote on the bill any day now.

But there are still some who are against making cannabis a prescription for PA, despite polls that show nearly everyone is for it.

A recent poll found 88% of people in the Commonwealth support legalizing medical cannabis.

“It’s very difficult to make an argument that sick people shouldn’t get medicine that should make them better,” Senator Daylin Leach told WNEP.  Leach is a Democrat from Montgomery County who is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 3.

This is the second time the bipartisan bill has been proposed in Pennsylvania, the Senate passed the bill last year and is poised to do it again.

Proponents of medical cannabis have had to make concessions for the house in hopes that this new bill will pass.

Representative Matt Baker is chair of the Health Committee in the House which has held a series of hearings on the issue and so far, he’s against it. “I would prefer that the medicine that’s approved be FDA approved, be prescribed by a doctor, and dispensed by a pharmacist,” said Baker, a Republican who represents parts of Bradford and Tioga counties.

Baker’s campaign records show in one year he received about $22,000 from pharmaceutical companies and the health care industry. Baker received contributions from Pfizer, Merck, Rite Aid PAC, and more: companies that could benefit from Baker’s call for more research and also have competing drugs already on the market.

Baker points to a letter from the president of the American Epilepsy Society warning lawmakers of potential harm from the cannabis oils being used in other states, urging more research.

“You can’t jump over it and just start providing this without knowing if it’s safe,” said Dr. Amy Brooks-Kayal.

A check of the society’s corporate partners found grants in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical companies and laboratories.

“We can’t get the medicines to treat people with any kind of disorder without partnering with the pharmaceutical industry,” Brooks-Kayal added.

Meanwhile, Baker said he fears legalizing medical cannabis will open the door to full-blown legalization and doesn’t believe that nearly 90 percent of Pennsylvanians want it law.

“When you call something medicine in a poll, you predispose that it’s a fact.”

Governor Tom Wolf has said he will sign a medical cannabis law when and if it reaches his desk. However as that legislative process drags on and on, patients will have to wait for a treatment they would rather have right now.

Even if medical cannabis gets approval this year, lawmakers said it could take months, perhaps more than a year before patients can start using the treatments.

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