Medical marijuana amendments, vote planned in Pennsylvania House

Different strains of pot are displayed for sale Dec. 27, 2013, at a dispensary in Denver, under Colorado's full legalization of marijuana for recreational use by adults. Pennsylvania lawmakers plan a vote the week of March 14, 2016, on creating a medical marijuana program, a spokesman for the House Republican leadership said. (AP file photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Pennsylvania's bill to create a medical marijuana program is nearing a vote in the state House of Representatives, where amendments to the proposal abound.

House Majority Leader David Reed, R-Indiana, plans to bring the measure, Senate Bill 3, up for a vote when members return from recess the week of March 14, said Steve Miskin, spokesman for the House Republican leadership.

Passed 40-7 in the Senate last May 12, the bill is bound to go back before the Senate -- if passed by the House -- because of the amendments to be considered, Miskin said.

"There are more than 200 amendments and they go through the gamut," Miskin told lehighvalleylive.com Wednesday. "Some of them open up to full recreation -- that's not by Republican members -- and there's some that basically want to restrict it back down to the Stone Ages."

Miskin said he does not believe there is consensus on amendments to limit the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol.

Steve Hoenstine, spokesman for Democratic bill sponsor Sen. Daylin Leach, said his office doesn't have an inside track on which amendments would come up for a vote or be likely to pass.

"We're hopeful that they keep their word on that," he said of a vote next month. "And once they hold the vote, if it passes and it's changed in some way, it'll have to go back to Senate, and if it comes back to the Senate we'll see what changes they made."

Gov. Tom Wolf, who on Wednesday announced his diagnosis of treatable prostate cancer, has maintained he supports opening up cannabis for medical use in Pennsylvania, as 23 states -- including New Jersey -- and the District of Columbia have done.

Hoenstine said last year's Senate bill was overwhelmingly bipartisan and that advocates are anxious for the program to start. Supporters earlier this month staged a sit-in on the House side of the Capitol Rotunda to demand a vote, pennlive.com reports.

"We know that advocates have grown impatient," Hoenstine said Wednesday. "We've grown impatient. We just really need the House to act on it. ... The top priority has to be getting the medicine to the patients that need it as soon as possible."

As passed in the Senate, the bill creates a medical cannabis access card, available by prescription to adults or patient representative of a minor, and a system for growing and dispensing sativa, indica and hybrid strains of cannabis.

Patients would be eligible for 2 1/2 ounces of medical cannabis every two weeks, without a Pennsylvania Department of Health waiver for more.

Smoking marijuana would remain prohibited, but patients would be able to consume cannabis through vaporization and the use of oils, ointments, tinctures, liquids, gels, pills and similar substances, as well as homemade edible products.

The list of conditions for which cannabis could be prescribed includes cancer, epilepsy and seizures, ALS, wasting syndrome, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury and post-concussion syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Spinocerebellar ataxia, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, Crohn's disease, diabetes and any "chronic or intractable pain where other methods of treatment no longer have therapeutic or palliative benefit."

The proposal also allows residents to petition to add conditions, beginning July 1, 2017.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.