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Bipartisan Pennsylvania senators on Wednesday said they are introducing a bill to allow medical marijuana patients to cultivate their own plants for personal use.<\/p>\n
Sens. Dan Laughlin (R) and Sharif Street (D) made the announcement about a month after unveiling a separate adult-use legalization proposal<\/a>. This more modest reform would simply promote access by giving medical patients a home cultivation option.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the passage of Act 16 in 2016, Pennsylvania\u2019s medical marijuana (MMJ) program has offered lifesaving medicine to communities across the Commonwealth,\u201d the senators wrote in a memo seeking additional cosponsors for the soon-to-be-introduced bill. \u201cHowever, there are still inefficiencies around MMJ that are well known, especially as it relates to cost and access.\u201d<\/p>\n Letting patients grow their own medicine would \u201chelp ease the cost and accessibility burdens for this important medicine,\u201d they said<\/a>. \u201cThis legislation would go a long way towards helping everyday Pennsylvanians meet their health needs and ensuring everyone is treated equitably and fairly under Act 16.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, @SenSharifStreet<\/a> and I introduced our Medical Marijuana Home Cultivation Bill. <\/p>\n This will go a long way towards helping everyday Pennsylvanians meet their health needs and ensuring everyone is treated equitably and fairly under Act 16.<\/p>\n Read More: https:\/\/t.co\/DbmBhETVF0<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Senator Dan Laughlin (@senatorlaughlin) November 17, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Street had attempted to get the reform enacted as an amendment to an omnibus bill this summer, but it did not advance<\/a>.<\/p>\n The senators argue that patients in particular are deserving of a home grow option, as some must currently travel hours to visit a licensed dispensary and there are financial burdens that could be alleviated if patients could grow their own plants for medicine.<\/p>\n \u201cPennsylvania\u2019s MMJ Advisory Board and the state Health Department have mounting data illustrating significant disparities in accessibility,\u201d Laughlin said<\/a> in a press release. \u201cCost has likewise been a big burden for patients for quite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the senators are also behind a much-anticipated bipartisan bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n They unveiled the nearly 240-page legislation in October, months after first outlining some key details<\/a>\u00a0back in February. It would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to 30 grams of cannabis, five grams of marijuana concentrate products and 500 milligrams of THC contained in cannabis-infused products.<\/p>\n \u2014 Meanwhile, Rep. Amen Brown (D) recently\u00a0announced his intent to file a legalization bill<\/a>\u00a0that he\u2019ll be working on with\u00a0Sen. Mike Regan (R), who expressed his support for the policy change a day earlier<\/a>.<\/p>\n Additionally, a separate pair of state lawmakers\u2014Reps. Jake Wheatley (D) and Dan Frankel (D)\u2014formally unveiled a legalization bill they\u2019re proposing<\/a>.<\/p>\n While each measure generally seeks and end to marijuana criminalization by creating a regulated, commercial model for cannabis, there are some provisions that make each piece of legislation unique. For example, the proposals vary in how they would approach taxes, revenue and social equity.<\/p>\n While these recent moves to enact reform in the GOP-controlled legislature are encouraging to advocates, a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R) recently tempered expectations, saying that there\u2019s \u201cno significant support for the legalization of recreational marijuana in the House Republican caucus.\u201d<\/p>\n Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D),\u00a0who is running for U.S. Senate<\/a>, told Marijuana Moment in a recent phone interview that he\u2019s optimistic about the prospects of reform with these latest proposals, though he acknowledged that there may be disputes between legislators over how tax revenue should be distributed.<\/p>\n Gov. Tom Wolf (D), for his part, has said that a bipartisan approach to legalization \u201cwould be a great thing. I think the time is right.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Philadelphia voters approved a ballot referendum this month<\/a>, urging the state to enact legalization. The hope is that the local vote will further motivate the legislature to move ahead with legalization.<\/p>\n While broad cannabis legalization proposals have not moved forward in the Republican-led legislature, Pennsylvania senators heard testimony in September on a bill to protect medical marijuana patients<\/a>\u00a0from being prosecuted under the state\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d DUI laws.<\/p>\n Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R)\u00a0first introduced an earlier version<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0bill\u00a0in June 2020. She said at the time that the state needs to \u201censure that the legal use of this medicine does not give rise to a criminal conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n Months after the standalone reform legislation was introduced, the Pennsylvania House approved\u00a0a separate amendment that would enact the policy change<\/a>.<\/p>\n A Pennsylvania lawmaker also introduced a bill last month to expand the number of medical marijuana cultivators<\/a> in the state, prioritizing small farms to break up what she characterized as a monopoly or large corporations that\u2019s created supply problems.<\/p>\n Separately last month, a bipartisan coalition of Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced a bill that\u2019s meant to promote research into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms<\/a> for mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. That bill was scheduled for a committee vote this week but has been temporarily tabled to address technical changes being sought by the Health Department.<\/p>\n Outside the legislature, Wolf\u00a0said earlier this year that marijuana legalization was a priority<\/a>\u00a0as he negotiated the annual budget with lawmakers. However, his formal spending request didn\u2019t contain legislative language to actually accomplish the cannabis policy change.<\/p>\n Wolf, who signed\u00a0a medical cannabis expansion bill in June<\/a>, has repeatedly called for legalization and\u00a0pressured the Republican-controlled legislature to pursue the reform<\/a>\u00a0since\u00a0coming out in favor of the policy in 2019<\/a>. Shortly after he did that, a lawmaker filed a separate bill to\u00a0legalize marijuana through a state-run model<\/a>.<\/p>\n In May,\u00a0Wolf pardoned a doctor<\/a>\u00a0who was arrested, prosecuted and jailed for growing marijuana that he used to provide relief for his dying wife. That marked his\u00a096th pardon for people with cannabis convictions<\/a>\u00a0through the Expedited Review Program for Non-Violent Marijuana-Related Offenses that\u2019s being run by the Board of Pardons.<\/p>\n A survey from Franklin & Marshall College released last month found that 60 percent of Pennsylvania voters back adult-use legalization<\/a>. That\u2019s the highest level of support for the issue since the firm started polling people about it in 2006.<\/p>\n NYC Subways Ban Marijuana And Psychedelic Mushroom Ads<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Bipartisan Pennsylvania Senators Announce Medical Marijuana Home Grow Bill<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Bipartisan Pennsylvania senators on Wednesday said they are introducing a bill to allow medical marijuana patients to cultivate their own plants for personal use. Sens. Dan Laughlin (R) and Sharif Street (D) made the announcement about a month after unveiling a separate adult-use legalization proposal. This more modest reform wouldContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":51233,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51234,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51232\/revisions\/51234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Bipartisan Pennsylvania Senators Announce Medical Marijuana Home Grow Bill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"