Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
About one of every seven people in Franklin County has a condition that could qualify them for medical marijuana.
Medical marijuana can be used in Pennsylvania to treat any one of 17 serious medical conditions, including two relatively common disorders — severe chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The state's medical marijuana program is to be fully implemented by early 2018, but mid-April appears to be the earliest that patients could be able to pick up medical marijuana at their local dispensary. The state is still developing the system. Growers and dispensaries have scarcely started on getting their buildings ready.
The process for getting a "prescription" and picking up medical marijuana is more involved than visiting your family doctor and stopping by the neighborhood drug store. Both the prescribing physician and the patient must register with the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The medicine will be distributed only at a dispensary.
The Chambersburg area will have Franklin County's only dispensaries — Firefly Dispensaries at 1737 Lincoln Way East and Organic Remedies at 900 Wayne Ave. The county's lone growing-processing plant will be Grassroots Cannabis at 1086 Wayne Ave. Ilera Health Care is building a grow-process operation at 3786 North Hess Road in Taylor Township, Fulton County.
Pennsylvania initially has issued 12 grower/processor permits and 27 dispensary permits. Other dispensaries in the area include Knox Medical, 6444 Frederick St., Hanover, and Organic Remedies Inc., 4425 Valley Road, Enola. Firefly Dispensaries will have two other locations -- 801 S. Front St., Steelton, and 872 Harrisburg Pike, Carlisle. Lebanon Wellness Center LLC will have two locations --19 Baltimore St., Gettysburg, and 847 Cumberland St., Lebanon.
Growers and dispensaries have until the end of the year to be operating and and certified by the state.
"It takes 14 weeks to grow the plant and process for dispensaries," said April Hutcheson, spokeswoman for the Health Department. "The grower/processors are working now to become operational so they can be ready when patients are able to join the program."
Pennsylvania's medical cannabis law allows up to 25 processor/grower operations and 150 dispensaries.
Pennsylvania is one of 29 states to legalize the use of medical marijuana, but the state laws do not overrule federal law which prohibits growing, distributing or possessing marijuana. The U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama in 2013 indicated its drug enforcement unit would not challenge state-regulated marijuana systems. In August Attorney General Jeff Session's Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety also came up with no new policy recommendations for handling the state policies.
According to the state Department of Health, it's "unlikely" that federal authorities would investigate or prosecute growers, dispensaries, physicians, seriously ill individuals or caregivers who comply with Pennsylvania's medical marijuana law.
The friction between state and federal law makes for some peculiarities.
Physicians cannot prescribe medical marijuana without endangering his or her federal medical license to prescribe, according to NORML. So, Pennsylvania's medical marijuana law has a work-around. A physician certifies that a patient has one of the 17 qualifying conditions and can recommend the dosage and use of medical marijuana for up to a year. The physician also can defer to a medical professional at a dispensary to consult with the patient and come up with the appropriate form and dosage.
Medical marijuana in Pennsylvania can be in the form of a pill, oil, tincture, liquid, topical gel or ointment and a form that can be administered by vaporization or nebulization. Plant parts, flowers or edible products are forbidden.
Physicians must register with the Health Department before being able to certify patients for medical marijuana. They also must take the department's four-hour course.
How to find a doctor
It should not be hard to find a physician willing to consider medical marijuana as a treatment. Early in the program, the Health Department found that 75 percent of the 191 physicians participating in a survey said they would register.
The Health Department will post online the registry of physicians, but the registry has not yet been compiled. The physician-approval process is underway, according to Hutcheson.
"We are developing regulations for patients to participate in the program, and we anticipate having them ready in the coming weeks," Hutcheson said. "Those regulations will outline how patients will be able to get ID cards."
To get medical marijuana, you must:
-Register with the department. (The department has not issued guidelines for the process, but industry publications recommend getting a copy of your medical records ahead of time.)
-Obtain a physician's certification that you suffer from one of the 17 qualifying serious medical conditions.
-Apply for the medical marijuana ID card and submit the $50 application fee.
-Use the card to get medical marijuana from a state-approved dispensary.
A caregiver, designated by the patient and approved by the department, also can obtain medical marijuana from an approved dispensary and deliver it to the patient.
Dispensaries will determine the price of medical marijuana products.
Waxes and oils of medical marijuana sell for about $20 to $60 a gram, according to MarijuanaDoctors. A one-ounce bottle of concentrated liquid marijuana, or tincture, goes for $20 to $40.
Medical marijuana treats conditions
Studies have shown that marijuana can relieve pain, nausea, anorexia, inflammation and relax muscles of people with multiple sclerosis. It may help to control some seizures.
More than 22,000 in Franklin County could qualify to use medical marijuana, based on conservative estimates of the incidence of the Pennsylvania-eligible disorders in the U.S. population. The conditions affecting the most people by far are chronic pain (12 percent or more of the population), PTSD (3.5 percent) and epilepsy (1.2 percent). The county also has 610 people with autism, 730 with cancer and 18 with HIV, according to the Health Department.
These "serious medical conditions" are eligible to be treated with medical marijuana in Pennsylvania:
-Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
-Autism
-Cancer
-Crohn's Disease
-Damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity
-Epilepsy
-Glaucoma
-HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) / AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
-Huntington's Disease
-Inflammatory Bowel Disease
-Intractable Seizures
-Multiple Sclerosis
-Neuropathies
-Parkinson's Disease
-Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
-Severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is contraindicated or ineffective
-Sickle Cell Anemia
The use of medical marijuana remains an option for a patient with his or her physician to consider.
According to the Parkinson's Foundation: "There are risks and benefits associated with the use of cannabis for people with PD. Benefits include a possible improvement in pain management, sleep dysfunction, weight loss and nausea. Potential adverse effects include impaired cognition, dizziness, blurring of vision, mood and behavioral changes, loss of balance and hallucinations."
According to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America: "While marijuana might temporarily reduce pain and nausea, there is, as yet, no evidence that it can control chronic intestinal inflammation--the underlying cause of these symptoms in Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis."
'We do not know yet how many Pennsylvanians would qualify for medical marijuana because an approved-physician must certify them first," Hutcheson said.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: This is how and when you can get medical marijuana in Pennsylvania
Author: Jim Hook
Contact: Contact Us | Public Opinion Chambersburg
Photo Credit: Markell DeLoatch
Website: Chambersburg Public Opinion - Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic
Medical marijuana can be used in Pennsylvania to treat any one of 17 serious medical conditions, including two relatively common disorders — severe chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The state's medical marijuana program is to be fully implemented by early 2018, but mid-April appears to be the earliest that patients could be able to pick up medical marijuana at their local dispensary. The state is still developing the system. Growers and dispensaries have scarcely started on getting their buildings ready.
The process for getting a "prescription" and picking up medical marijuana is more involved than visiting your family doctor and stopping by the neighborhood drug store. Both the prescribing physician and the patient must register with the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The medicine will be distributed only at a dispensary.
The Chambersburg area will have Franklin County's only dispensaries — Firefly Dispensaries at 1737 Lincoln Way East and Organic Remedies at 900 Wayne Ave. The county's lone growing-processing plant will be Grassroots Cannabis at 1086 Wayne Ave. Ilera Health Care is building a grow-process operation at 3786 North Hess Road in Taylor Township, Fulton County.
Pennsylvania initially has issued 12 grower/processor permits and 27 dispensary permits. Other dispensaries in the area include Knox Medical, 6444 Frederick St., Hanover, and Organic Remedies Inc., 4425 Valley Road, Enola. Firefly Dispensaries will have two other locations -- 801 S. Front St., Steelton, and 872 Harrisburg Pike, Carlisle. Lebanon Wellness Center LLC will have two locations --19 Baltimore St., Gettysburg, and 847 Cumberland St., Lebanon.
Growers and dispensaries have until the end of the year to be operating and and certified by the state.
"It takes 14 weeks to grow the plant and process for dispensaries," said April Hutcheson, spokeswoman for the Health Department. "The grower/processors are working now to become operational so they can be ready when patients are able to join the program."
Pennsylvania's medical cannabis law allows up to 25 processor/grower operations and 150 dispensaries.
Pennsylvania is one of 29 states to legalize the use of medical marijuana, but the state laws do not overrule federal law which prohibits growing, distributing or possessing marijuana. The U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama in 2013 indicated its drug enforcement unit would not challenge state-regulated marijuana systems. In August Attorney General Jeff Session's Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety also came up with no new policy recommendations for handling the state policies.
According to the state Department of Health, it's "unlikely" that federal authorities would investigate or prosecute growers, dispensaries, physicians, seriously ill individuals or caregivers who comply with Pennsylvania's medical marijuana law.
The friction between state and federal law makes for some peculiarities.
Physicians cannot prescribe medical marijuana without endangering his or her federal medical license to prescribe, according to NORML. So, Pennsylvania's medical marijuana law has a work-around. A physician certifies that a patient has one of the 17 qualifying conditions and can recommend the dosage and use of medical marijuana for up to a year. The physician also can defer to a medical professional at a dispensary to consult with the patient and come up with the appropriate form and dosage.
Medical marijuana in Pennsylvania can be in the form of a pill, oil, tincture, liquid, topical gel or ointment and a form that can be administered by vaporization or nebulization. Plant parts, flowers or edible products are forbidden.
Physicians must register with the Health Department before being able to certify patients for medical marijuana. They also must take the department's four-hour course.
How to find a doctor
It should not be hard to find a physician willing to consider medical marijuana as a treatment. Early in the program, the Health Department found that 75 percent of the 191 physicians participating in a survey said they would register.
The Health Department will post online the registry of physicians, but the registry has not yet been compiled. The physician-approval process is underway, according to Hutcheson.
"We are developing regulations for patients to participate in the program, and we anticipate having them ready in the coming weeks," Hutcheson said. "Those regulations will outline how patients will be able to get ID cards."
To get medical marijuana, you must:
-Register with the department. (The department has not issued guidelines for the process, but industry publications recommend getting a copy of your medical records ahead of time.)
-Obtain a physician's certification that you suffer from one of the 17 qualifying serious medical conditions.
-Apply for the medical marijuana ID card and submit the $50 application fee.
-Use the card to get medical marijuana from a state-approved dispensary.
A caregiver, designated by the patient and approved by the department, also can obtain medical marijuana from an approved dispensary and deliver it to the patient.
Dispensaries will determine the price of medical marijuana products.
Waxes and oils of medical marijuana sell for about $20 to $60 a gram, according to MarijuanaDoctors. A one-ounce bottle of concentrated liquid marijuana, or tincture, goes for $20 to $40.
Medical marijuana treats conditions
Studies have shown that marijuana can relieve pain, nausea, anorexia, inflammation and relax muscles of people with multiple sclerosis. It may help to control some seizures.
More than 22,000 in Franklin County could qualify to use medical marijuana, based on conservative estimates of the incidence of the Pennsylvania-eligible disorders in the U.S. population. The conditions affecting the most people by far are chronic pain (12 percent or more of the population), PTSD (3.5 percent) and epilepsy (1.2 percent). The county also has 610 people with autism, 730 with cancer and 18 with HIV, according to the Health Department.
These "serious medical conditions" are eligible to be treated with medical marijuana in Pennsylvania:
-Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
-Autism
-Cancer
-Crohn's Disease
-Damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity
-Epilepsy
-Glaucoma
-HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) / AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
-Huntington's Disease
-Inflammatory Bowel Disease
-Intractable Seizures
-Multiple Sclerosis
-Neuropathies
-Parkinson's Disease
-Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
-Severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is contraindicated or ineffective
-Sickle Cell Anemia
The use of medical marijuana remains an option for a patient with his or her physician to consider.
According to the Parkinson's Foundation: "There are risks and benefits associated with the use of cannabis for people with PD. Benefits include a possible improvement in pain management, sleep dysfunction, weight loss and nausea. Potential adverse effects include impaired cognition, dizziness, blurring of vision, mood and behavioral changes, loss of balance and hallucinations."
According to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America: "While marijuana might temporarily reduce pain and nausea, there is, as yet, no evidence that it can control chronic intestinal inflammation--the underlying cause of these symptoms in Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis."
'We do not know yet how many Pennsylvanians would qualify for medical marijuana because an approved-physician must certify them first," Hutcheson said.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: This is how and when you can get medical marijuana in Pennsylvania
Author: Jim Hook
Contact: Contact Us | Public Opinion Chambersburg
Photo Credit: Markell DeLoatch
Website: Chambersburg Public Opinion - Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic
