A bill to legalize the use of marijuana for qualifying medical patients and create a system of “Compassion Centers” has been introduced in the Keystone State. Senate Bill 1003 was brought forward on April 25th by Senator Daylin Leach with Senators Larry Farnese, James Ferlo and Wayne Fontana as the initial co-sponsors. The bill has been referred to the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. READ SB 1003
The language is essentially a re-introduction of legislation from 2009-10 that was active in both houses of the General Assembly. The bill includes provisions for home cultivation and collects the state sales tax on medical cannabis. Last year the issue saw impressive public hearings in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh before the House Health and Human Services Committee. Seriously ill residents, religious leaders, cannabis advocates, doctors and nurses spoke in favor of the measure but the the bill never got a vote.
Dr. Harry Swidler, an Emergency Medicine physician said at the hearings: “Marijuana is non-addicting. There is no physical dependence or physical withdrawal associated with its use. It is, from a practical standpoint, non-toxic. Marijuana is safer by some measures than any other drug. There is simply no known quantity of marijuana capable of killing a person.”
Advocates at Pennsylvanians for Medical Marijuana PA4MMJ (this author sits on the Board at PA4MMJ) are pushing for several changes to the bill when it gets to committee this session. These include re-naming the bill to The Governor Raymond P. Shafer Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.
In 1970, just after stepping down as governor in Pennsylvania, Shafer chaired a blue-ribbon commission for President Nixon that recommended two main points: 1) Marijuana should not be placed in Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act 2) Marijuana possession should be decriminalized at the federal level. Nixon ignored those suggestions and ever since the federal government has aggressively enforced the Schedule I classification that describes cannabis as having “…no currently accepted medical use in treatment …” This is the reason that states independently legalize marijuana for medical uses.
Polling conducted by Franklin&Marshall in 2010 showed that a striking 80 percent of residents support passing a medical marijuana law in Pennsylvania.
Visit www.pa4mmj.org to contact state officials.
i believe that marijuana should be legalized. There wound be less violence, cut down on street market and hell they could even tax it and make the government money. I think in order to get into the store, u would be carded at the door, 18 should be the age, So in the end , i Trevor of pa, support the legalizing and government selling and taxing of medical marijuana and i think you should to Thank You.
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I Feel Marijuana would be of great help to those of us who cannot afford those expensive drugs which cause more problems than they fix. For example I take trazidone for insomnia prozac for depression and seroquil for bi-polar. These medications conflict with each other. I am forced to sleep and for hours after i wake up I am almost a zombie. But my use of marijuana does not cause a “zombification”. It helps me sleep, it helps fight my depression, and it solves the problem of my mood swings. All of this is done with no side effects. I can function like a normal human being. Why is it illegal for me to be normal? Why is it impossible for me to get a job unless i am taking medications which do more harm than help? I just want to be able to have a normal day without the threat of going to jail or being fined for treating me issues. Legalize normality, functionality, and relief.
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