Pa. bill would loosen rules on prescribing medical marijuana

Two lawmakers have announced plans for legislation that would strip the state’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Board of one of its main functions – determining what serious medical conditions entitle patients to legally use marijuana products.

Under the proposal, patients would be entitled to use marijuana for any medical condition if their doctors determine they could benefit from it.

In a cosponsor memo, Sen. Mike Regan, R-Cumberland, and Sen. James Brewster, D-Allegheny, said that “elected officials and bureaucratic staffers should not be deciding what ailment qualifies an individual to use medical marijuana.”

The proposal from Mr. Regan and would be similar to the medical marijuana rules in Oklahoma. The Marijuana Policy Project says almost 10% of Oklahoma’s population were medical marijuana patients in 2021. If that percentage were repeated in Pennsylvania, there’d be about 1.2 million medical marijuana patients.

The new proposal comes as Pennsylvania is becoming increasingly surrounded by states where any adult can legally obtain marijuana but efforts to relax the state’s marijuana laws for adult recreational marijuana use have been stymied by opposition from Republican lawmakers. While Democrats are poised to take the majority in the state House and could advance a marijuana legalization bill, Republicans hold the majority in the Senate.

[Read more at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]