Is Pennsylvania Set To Be the Next State to Legalize Medical Marijuana?

By Brandon Turbeville

If all goes well Pennsylvania may become the next state to pass a medical marijuana program allowing for restricted use and access to marijuana for medical purposes. This is because a bill has passed the Pennsylvania House by a vote of 149 to 43 that would establish standards for doctors, growers and dispensaries as well as allow patients to consume marijuana in pill, liquid or oil forms.

The law would have strict standards on who and for what reason the marijuana could be procured. Medical marijuana patients would need to have a serious condition such as cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, glaucoma, or chronic/intractable pain. Under the bill, the state would license as many as 50 dispensaries and up to 25 processors and growers. Patients would not be able to obtain marijuana they are able to smoke.

Representative Jim Cox stated,

Today we have the opportunity of offering hope to the parents of these children, to the patients, offering the hope of letting them, along with their doctors, decide how to best treat the conditions they’re dealing with on a daily basis.

But despite the fact that the bill was passed by an overwhelming majority, not all members of the Pennsylvania House supported the bill.

If anyone was wondering about the argument coming from one of the 43 House members who maintained that a harmless and beneficial plant present in nature should continue to be considered illegal and that not even the sickest Pennsylvania citizens should have access to it – enter: Majority Whip Bryan Cutler. Cutler said,

We’re setting the path to bypass the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) product approval process, whether the drugs are good or bad. We’re saying we’re willing to circumvent that process, a process that’s been in place for over 100 years, because it’s what’s needed now.

Aside from marijuana laws themselves, Representative Cutler appears to be more alarmed by the fact that the state of Pennsylvania would be circumventing the authority of the FDA. Cutler’s argument – a bizarre states-rights-in-reverse argument – revolves around seeding basic rights to the same agency that approved Vioxx, RBGHT, and mercury for various forms of consumption.

What is even more interesting, however, is that Cutler cuts the throat of his own argument (pun intended) when he references the “100 year” existence of his preferred process since marijuana has been on the planet since the known beginnings of human history. A period of time that is far older than the FDA.

Thankfully, Cutler and his ilk were in the minority. Representative Jeff Pyle, however, received a standing ovation after recounting his own fight with cancer and the chances his daughters may one day have to battle the disease.

I live with cancer everyday. I’m told there is a very high likelihood I’ll have it again. Please let my kids have access to this.

The bill now heads to the Virginia senate where it has a high likelihood of passing. The Virginia Senate passed a similar bill last year.

Photo credit: Dank Depot via Visualhunt.com / CC BY

This article (Is Pennsylvania Set To Be the Next State to Legalize Medical Marijuana?) can be republished under a Creative Commons license with  attribution to Brandon Turbeville and Natural Blaze.com.

Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies,Five Sense SolutionsandDispatches From a Dissident, volume 1and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 600 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.