The state Department of Health will oversee the program which could be operating in 18-24 months.
Advertisement
Gov. Tom Wolf will sign a bill creating the Medical Marijuana Act at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Capitol Rotunda and then at night the front of Capitol will be bathed in green lights to celebrate.
But a safe harbor provision allows parents to legally buy medical marijuana from another state for their child in the meantime.
The Health Department will work on temporary regulations in order to meet the 6-month publishing requirement under the statute. The bipartisan amendment, adopted 20-10, would allow VA doctors to operate under the same rules as civilian physicians in medical marijuana states. Sales from growers and processors to dispensaries will be taxed at 5 percent. Patients wouldn’t be able to legally obtain marijuana in a form they could smoke.
Prior to this amendment, United States soldiers seeking access through the VA to marijuana for pain management following a debilitating war-time injury, or to manage anxiety that so often triggers PTSD, or for any other applicable goal, were instead prescribed highly-addictive opiate-based narcotics. It will provide medical marijuana to patients who are under a physician’s care for the treatment of a serious medical condition.
Advertisement
The medical marijuana program will benefit patients and families who are in desperate need of treatment.
