Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
The papers and opinions on medical marijuana kept coming across Rep. Aaron Kaufer's desk. Advocates and opponents wanted their chance to convince him.
Kaufer, R-Kingston, was a member of a bipartisan working group in the state House of Representatives looking at the issue of medical marijuana.
After months of research and meetings, the group sent its conclusions to House majority leader Dave Reed in September. The conclusions gave guidelines for how a potential medical marijuana program could be implemented.
The process involved sifting through plenty of claims about what medical marijuana could and couldn't do.
"It wasn't just one of these things like, 'Here's every disease in the world that could potentially be treated,'" Kaufer said. "It was, 'Show us the documented evidence of where it's being done in other states and its success or non-success on these things.' Really it was learning case-by-case and disease-by-disease what was being used and what was appropriate and what was not appropriate."
The group distilled hundreds of pages of laws and opinions and testimony from more than 100 people into eight conclusions that went to Reed. He is the chairman of the House Rules Committee, where medical marijuana legislation Senate Bill 3 currently sits.
With a legislature examining the issue more thoroughly than before and a governor who has said he is in favor of changes to current laws, the status of marijuana in Pennsylvania could change.
A total of 23 states, and the District of Columbia, allow medical marijuana programs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Organizations representing cannabis advocates, doctors and law enforcement all have opinions on how a potential change could happen in Pennsylvania.
Senate Bill
In May, the state Senate passed a medical marijuana bill by a 40-7 margin.
It's one of three completed medical marijuana bills, plus a preliminary draft of another bill, introduced in the legislature during the 2015-2016 legislative session.
The Senate Bill would create a State Board of Medical Cannabis Licensing and would have allowed doctors and nurse practitioners to prescribe medical cannabis to patients. That cannabis could come as an oil, ointment, tincture, liquid, gel, pill or similar substance, but patients were forbidden to smoke it.
In the latest version of the bill, patients with fifteen medical conditions qualified for medical cannabis: cancer, epilepsy and seizures, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), cachexia/wasting syndrome, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury and post-concussion syndrome, multiple sclerosis, spinocerebellar ataxia, post-traumatic stress disorder, severe fibromyalgia, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, chronic or intractable pain where other methods of treatment no longer have therapeutic or palliative benefits, Crohn's disease and diabetes. The Department of Health could authorize more conditions to receive treatment.
Other Legislation
This is not the first time Pennsylvania's lawmakers have tried to pass medical marijuana legislation.
Since 2009, lawmakers have written thirteen bills on the issue.
The working group Kaufer was a part of also used another bill from this legislative session, House Bill 1432, in its research.
House Bill 1432 would allow a medical marijuana program under the control of the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.
Under the House bill, doctors could prescribe medical marijuana for serious medical conditions. The list of conditions is more limited than in Senate Bill 3, and the bill would allow a maximum of 20 dispensaries throughout the state. Patients would be able take medical marijuana vaporization or in oil or pill form, and smoking and edibles are prohibited.
Pennsylvania Medical Society
Calls for medical marijuana aren't coming from representatives for the state's medical community.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society, the professional association for the state's physicians, says doctors need to conduct more research on medical marijuana.
Federal law lists marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug. Those drugs have no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
PAMED and the American Medical Association say that listing hampers effective research. Large studies in which researchers and subjects both don't know what's medicine and what is a placebo are rare, PAMED said.
The organization supports more research, specifically for clinical trials on medicine to treat children with seizure disorders, but "until well-controlled studies of safety and efficacy have been completed, PAMED believes that legislation legalizing medical marijuana would be premature," the organization said.
Articles published in June in the The Journal of the American Medical Association point to at least some success with marijuana as medicine.
"Evidence suggests that marijuana may be an effective treatment for chronic pain, neuropathic (nerve) pain, and muscle spasms due to multiple sclerosis or paraplegia," wrote Dr. Amy E. Thompson in an article.
In an abstract for another article that reviewed medical literature from 1948 to March 2015, Dr. Kevin P. Hill wrote that "use of marijuana for chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity due to multiple sclerosis is supported by high-quality evidence."
Like all drugs, marijuana has risks and limitations.
Thompson pointed out that "There have not been enough large studies of marijuana to definitively show that it is a safe and effective drug."
The drug "causes an increase in heart rate, which may increase the chance of heart attack in people who are already at risk. Regular smoking of marijuana is associated with breathing problems such as cough and increased risk of lung infections. It can also be addicting and can interfere with work, school, and relationships," she wrote.
Law Enforcement
The Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association has not taken a position on any legislation, Executive Director Richard Long said.
"If Pennsylvania is going to enact medical marijuana, then there need to be safeguards in place with to make sure it truly is only accessible to those it is intended to help. In other words, we don't want a situation where it opens to door for illegitimate claims of needing access to the marijuana," he said.
Long said he likes New York's laws as a model for any potential change in Pennsylvania.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law in July 2014 that created a medical marijuana program. It allows physicians to prescribe medical marijuana for patients, who register for the program, pay a fee and complete a four-hour course. Up to five organizations can register with the state to produce and sell the drug, and each can operate up to four dispensaries. The law expires in seven years unless the legislature renews it.
Advocates And Citizens
Jeff Zick has another plant in mind to serve as a model for marijuana laws.
"It should be regulated like lettuce," he said.
Laws regulate production, but people can usually grow, ship, sell and consume it without law enforcement getting involved.
Zick, 34, of Hop Bottom organized a pro-marijuana rally in April in Scranton. He is an advocate and wants to see full legalization. He thinks medicinal marijuana should have been legal long ago.
"Twenty-three other states have some kind of medical program. We have to be the last to get one and act like it's something new," he said.
Zick's opinion on legal marijuana is in the minority in Pennsylvania. Only about 40 percent of registered voters think it should be legal. Local lawmakers don't support it either.
Medical marijuana is a different story.
A poll from the Center for Opinion Research at the Floyd Institute for Public Policy in Franklin & Marshall College finds most Pennsylvanians agree that medical marijuana should be legal.
The June 2015 poll showed 87 percent of voters said they favored allowing adults to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a doctor recommended it.
For now, the issue remains in lawmakers' hands. The current state budget stalemate has disrupted normal work, but the legislature is now starting to resume a normal routine, Kaufer said.
"I think we will be considering that sometime in the near future, I'm just not sure when," he said.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Task Force Completes Work On The Implementation Of Medical Marijuana
Author: Bill Wellock
Contact: Contact Page
Photo Credit: The Associated Press
Website: Citizens Voice News
Kaufer, R-Kingston, was a member of a bipartisan working group in the state House of Representatives looking at the issue of medical marijuana.
After months of research and meetings, the group sent its conclusions to House majority leader Dave Reed in September. The conclusions gave guidelines for how a potential medical marijuana program could be implemented.
The process involved sifting through plenty of claims about what medical marijuana could and couldn't do.
"It wasn't just one of these things like, 'Here's every disease in the world that could potentially be treated,'" Kaufer said. "It was, 'Show us the documented evidence of where it's being done in other states and its success or non-success on these things.' Really it was learning case-by-case and disease-by-disease what was being used and what was appropriate and what was not appropriate."
The group distilled hundreds of pages of laws and opinions and testimony from more than 100 people into eight conclusions that went to Reed. He is the chairman of the House Rules Committee, where medical marijuana legislation Senate Bill 3 currently sits.
With a legislature examining the issue more thoroughly than before and a governor who has said he is in favor of changes to current laws, the status of marijuana in Pennsylvania could change.
A total of 23 states, and the District of Columbia, allow medical marijuana programs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Organizations representing cannabis advocates, doctors and law enforcement all have opinions on how a potential change could happen in Pennsylvania.
Senate Bill
In May, the state Senate passed a medical marijuana bill by a 40-7 margin.
It's one of three completed medical marijuana bills, plus a preliminary draft of another bill, introduced in the legislature during the 2015-2016 legislative session.
The Senate Bill would create a State Board of Medical Cannabis Licensing and would have allowed doctors and nurse practitioners to prescribe medical cannabis to patients. That cannabis could come as an oil, ointment, tincture, liquid, gel, pill or similar substance, but patients were forbidden to smoke it.
In the latest version of the bill, patients with fifteen medical conditions qualified for medical cannabis: cancer, epilepsy and seizures, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), cachexia/wasting syndrome, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury and post-concussion syndrome, multiple sclerosis, spinocerebellar ataxia, post-traumatic stress disorder, severe fibromyalgia, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, chronic or intractable pain where other methods of treatment no longer have therapeutic or palliative benefits, Crohn's disease and diabetes. The Department of Health could authorize more conditions to receive treatment.
Other Legislation
This is not the first time Pennsylvania's lawmakers have tried to pass medical marijuana legislation.
Since 2009, lawmakers have written thirteen bills on the issue.
The working group Kaufer was a part of also used another bill from this legislative session, House Bill 1432, in its research.
House Bill 1432 would allow a medical marijuana program under the control of the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.
Under the House bill, doctors could prescribe medical marijuana for serious medical conditions. The list of conditions is more limited than in Senate Bill 3, and the bill would allow a maximum of 20 dispensaries throughout the state. Patients would be able take medical marijuana vaporization or in oil or pill form, and smoking and edibles are prohibited.
Pennsylvania Medical Society
Calls for medical marijuana aren't coming from representatives for the state's medical community.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society, the professional association for the state's physicians, says doctors need to conduct more research on medical marijuana.
Federal law lists marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug. Those drugs have no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
PAMED and the American Medical Association say that listing hampers effective research. Large studies in which researchers and subjects both don't know what's medicine and what is a placebo are rare, PAMED said.
The organization supports more research, specifically for clinical trials on medicine to treat children with seizure disorders, but "until well-controlled studies of safety and efficacy have been completed, PAMED believes that legislation legalizing medical marijuana would be premature," the organization said.
Articles published in June in the The Journal of the American Medical Association point to at least some success with marijuana as medicine.
"Evidence suggests that marijuana may be an effective treatment for chronic pain, neuropathic (nerve) pain, and muscle spasms due to multiple sclerosis or paraplegia," wrote Dr. Amy E. Thompson in an article.
In an abstract for another article that reviewed medical literature from 1948 to March 2015, Dr. Kevin P. Hill wrote that "use of marijuana for chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity due to multiple sclerosis is supported by high-quality evidence."
Like all drugs, marijuana has risks and limitations.
Thompson pointed out that "There have not been enough large studies of marijuana to definitively show that it is a safe and effective drug."
The drug "causes an increase in heart rate, which may increase the chance of heart attack in people who are already at risk. Regular smoking of marijuana is associated with breathing problems such as cough and increased risk of lung infections. It can also be addicting and can interfere with work, school, and relationships," she wrote.
Law Enforcement
The Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association has not taken a position on any legislation, Executive Director Richard Long said.
"If Pennsylvania is going to enact medical marijuana, then there need to be safeguards in place with to make sure it truly is only accessible to those it is intended to help. In other words, we don't want a situation where it opens to door for illegitimate claims of needing access to the marijuana," he said.
Long said he likes New York's laws as a model for any potential change in Pennsylvania.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law in July 2014 that created a medical marijuana program. It allows physicians to prescribe medical marijuana for patients, who register for the program, pay a fee and complete a four-hour course. Up to five organizations can register with the state to produce and sell the drug, and each can operate up to four dispensaries. The law expires in seven years unless the legislature renews it.
Advocates And Citizens
Jeff Zick has another plant in mind to serve as a model for marijuana laws.
"It should be regulated like lettuce," he said.
Laws regulate production, but people can usually grow, ship, sell and consume it without law enforcement getting involved.
Zick, 34, of Hop Bottom organized a pro-marijuana rally in April in Scranton. He is an advocate and wants to see full legalization. He thinks medicinal marijuana should have been legal long ago.
"Twenty-three other states have some kind of medical program. We have to be the last to get one and act like it's something new," he said.
Zick's opinion on legal marijuana is in the minority in Pennsylvania. Only about 40 percent of registered voters think it should be legal. Local lawmakers don't support it either.
Medical marijuana is a different story.
A poll from the Center for Opinion Research at the Floyd Institute for Public Policy in Franklin & Marshall College finds most Pennsylvanians agree that medical marijuana should be legal.
The June 2015 poll showed 87 percent of voters said they favored allowing adults to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a doctor recommended it.
For now, the issue remains in lawmakers' hands. The current state budget stalemate has disrupted normal work, but the legislature is now starting to resume a normal routine, Kaufer said.
"I think we will be considering that sometime in the near future, I'm just not sure when," he said.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Task Force Completes Work On The Implementation Of Medical Marijuana
Author: Bill Wellock
Contact: Contact Page
Photo Credit: The Associated Press
Website: Citizens Voice News
