PA State House Votes to Allow Medical Marijuana

As more of the American public is willing to vocally support legalization for medical marijuana, it seems only a matter of time before it is legal throughout the nation. Currently, roughly half of the states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, and some of those jurisdictions have legalized recreational marijuana. Until recently, Pennsylvania was among those states voicing fierce opposition to the legalization of medical cannabis.

However, according to a recent news feature from ABC News, the state house has just voted to allow medical marijuana. The state senate must still still pass the bill, but there is not expected to be much resistance. This is especially true since legislators tried to get the house to pass a similar bill last year but were not successful.

This new state law does permit marijuana to be cultivated, administered at dispensaries, and administered by doctors directly. Medical marijuana will be allowed in pill form, extracted THC oil, and some type of liquid. However, patients will not be able to get the drug in plant form capable of being smoked. They can, however, use a vaporizer to inhale the oil form most likely.

The opponents claim the house members are acting somewhat recklessly, because they are approving a drug that has not been properly tested and evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While this may technically be true, the reason for this is not that medical marijuana advocates are opposed to research and studies, it is that Congress refuses to remove marijuana from Schedule One of the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

In order to be on the highest schedule of the controlled substances act, a drug must have no accepted medical use, be highly addictive and/or dangerous. This is obviously a ridiculous position, in that marijuana is not generally considered addictive in a chemical sense and has many known medical uses. To add to the problem, there was not scientific evidence even presented to make the case that marijuana is dangerous. There were only unreliable stories about violent crime purported to be evidence, which were presented to Congress.

As for new studies, it hard to do any in the Untied States because it is a federal crime to even possess any quantity of marijuana, and many research labs rely upon federal funding. For this reason, most bench research and eventually clinical research of the efficacy and safety of medical marijuana is being performed overseas.

Even in places like Los Angeles, where medical marijuana has been legal for around 20 years, there are still constantly changing laws and new efforts by those who oppose medical cannabis to get shops shut down and deny patients there much needed medicine. Many of these people may not even be against medical marijuana itself, but are willing to do whatever they can at the expense of the patients to make a political stand. This makes it difficult for those in the medical cannabis industry to make sure they are doing everything above board, and that is why having an experienced medical cannabis attorney can be a big help.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

HOUSE VOTES TO LEGALIZE MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN PENNSYLVANIA, March 14, 2016, ABC News, By AP Wire
More Blog Entries:
California to Earn Huge Income from Taxes Should Legalized Marijuana Pass, Jan. 18, 2016, Los Angeles Marijuana Lawyer Blog