By Kevin Zwick
Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (March 14) – The state House of Representatives approved a sweeping amendment Monday to establish a state program allowing doctors to certify an individual’s ability to receive medical marijuana oil for certain medical conditions.
The passage of the “consensus” amendment, a product of recommendations from a legislative work group, as well as ancillary amendments, represents the clearing of a major hurdle in the push to legalize the marijuana derivative oil to treat medical conditions.
Senate Bill 3 remains on second consideration and the House plans to continue debate Tuesday. A final vote is planned for Wednesday, said House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin. The omnibus amendment, sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Ron Marsico, R-Dauphin, was approved on a vote of 152-38.
“We were able to come to a consensus on a number of elements about the legislation so that medical marijuana could become part of the therapeutic arsenal of physicians,” Marsico said.
The legislation as amended establishes a system of growers, processors and dispensaries. Fifty dispensaries would be allowed to have up to three separate locations, meaning potentially 150 places where patients could obtain medical marijuana.
A 5-percent tax on growers and processors would be directed to a state account called the Medical Marijuana Program Fund. The fund would help provide research money for universities and hospitals and offset costs for those patients who can’t afford medical marijuana.
The Department of Health and an advisory board would oversee the program, including creating regions so patients would have access to the drug. The board would, among other tasks, determine whether to expand or reduce the number of dispensaries and the list of applicable medical conditions.
Under the amendment, a “serious medical condition” includes cancer, epilepsy, intractable seizures, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, severe chronic and intractable pain of neuropathic origin, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies and Huntington’s disease.
A separate amendment, sponsored by Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, added Autism to the list of applicable conditions.
A second Diamond amendment removed a provision that capped individual doses to no more than 10 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component in marijuana. Despite concerns about increasing the THC levels, Marsico and his House Judiciary Committee counterpart, Rep. Joseph Petrarca, D-Westmoreland, defended the Diamond amendment, saying dosage amounts should be left to physicians.
Tom Santanna, legislative director of the Pennsylvania Medical Cannabis Society, said advocates support the Marsico amendment, and the agreed-to amendments make the legislation stronger.
House Health Committee Chairman Matt Baker, R-Tioga, filibustered Marsico’s amendment for roughly an hour, ticking through a list of medical groups that oppose medical marijuana and issuing warning about opening access to medical marijuana in the midst of an opioid addiction epidemic. But despite his efforts, Baker couldn’t sway enough colleagues on the floor to vote against the omnibus amendment.
The chamber approved two business-related amendments. One, a Baker amendment, would prevent a contract from being canceled if a signer was under the influence of medical marijuana. The other amendment, offered by Rep. Eli Evankovich, R-Armstrong, dealt with workplace safety.
A “research-only” amendment, which would have gutted the Marsico amendment, failed to get enough support.
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