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Pa. becomes 24th state with legal medical marijuana
Tom Wolf delivers a speech after being sworn in as the 47th Governor of Pennsylvania during an inauguration at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania January 20, 2015.
REUTERS/Mark MakelaHARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania has become the 24th state to legalize a comprehensive medical marijuana program.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf signed the bill into law Sunday afternoon surrounded by a jubilant crowd of supporters at the Capitol building in Harrisburg.
"Marijuana is medicine and it's coming to Pennsylvania," said Democratic Sen. Daylin Leach, the bill's co-sponsor.
The bill's drafters say it could take two years to write regulations and get retailers opened, but a provision allows parents to legally administer medical marijuana to their children before the bill takes effect in a month.
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The bill sets standards for tracking plants, certifying physicians and licensing growers, dispensaries and physicians. Patients could take marijuana in pill, oil, vapor, ointment or liquid form, but would not be able to legally obtain marijuana to smoke or grow.
Sen. Mike Vereb, a Republican, called on lawmakers to take on what he called "the number-one killer in Pennsylvania" - opioid abuse.
"Opioid abuse has no party, has no color, has no religion," Vereb said. "Let's face it, that's the killer. What we're doing today is the healer."
Among those celebrating the victory was parent Dana Ulrich, who has fought for legal access to the drug in the belief that it would help her 8-year-old daughter Lorelei, who has numerous seizures every day.
"I never doubted for one second that this day would come," she told the crowd, thanking patient advocates and caregivers as well as lawmakers and the governor. "When you get a group of truly dedicated people together, that have the same goal and the same mind and the same hearts, you can achieve anything."
Wolf called it "a great, great day for Pennsylvania, but more important, a great day for Pennsylvanians." He said he and lawmakers were responding not to a special interest group or to campaign contributors, but to "a real human need."
"When you have people who represent a cause as eloquently and in as heartfelt a way as the advocates for this have done, it shows that we can actually get something done that means something," Wolf said.
While I don't personally use it, I really don't see any harm in anyone else using it for medical, or recreational use ( provided they are not driving / operating heavy equipment while high, anyhow).
I think the long outdated laws of it being classified as one of the worst illegal drugs along side cocaine, heroine, morphine, and other class 1 substances is so grossly far off base it isn't funny.
Have you ever been in a room full of people smoking dope ( or eating as the case may be) and found someone or multiple people getting stupidly rowdy?? I haven't. Its a mellow buzz. You get a buzz, you will likely eat, then go nappy night night. On the other hand what about legal alcohol?? aren't barroom brawls started because someone ( or more than one) got too drunk and all of a sudden was 10 foot tall and bullet proof??
I also think the US Gov't is starting to take note of the uses for the medicine and recreational use for one large reason, the tax base it will create. I'm pretty sure they are taxing it to death in Colorado and Washington, and those states have seen red numbers turn into black with the additional tax revenue from the sale of it.
Not to mention all of the people in jail now for everything from simple possession to marketing the stuff because it was illegal. I think here in California they estimate it takes $60,000 / year to house one inmate. if all of the inmates doing time for simple possession / marketing were let out of jail it would reduce the cost of housing them in jail by 40% or more. ( in other words 40 % of the inmates are there for possession / marketing ). That would make room for the real criminals. Smoking / using dope is not a crime.
I know many of my friends that have served in Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, and other conflicts that have PTSD ( look it up if you don't know that acronym). And they claim it is the only thing that keeps them from having flashbacks of the war(s). Who am I to doubt what they say??
with 24 out of 50 states legalizing it, the Feds will have to do something sooner than later. While there are only 3 of 50 that have legalized it for recreational use, there will be more to come, again sooner than later in my opinion. ( at least I hope).
Just to recap, I do not personally use the stuff, and probably would not even if it were legalized. But that doesn't stop me from having an opinion on the matter.
