Pa. House Speaker Has ‘Boehner-Like Breakdown’ Over Medical Marijuana

Despite House Speaker Mike Turzai's reported tears in opposition to medical marijuana, the bill passed out of a committee yesterday with bipartisan support.

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A poll in June showed 87 percent of Pennsylvania registered voters support medical marijuana. So most of the state is OK with marijuana use if a doctor recommends it. But some people against medical marijuana use are really against it.

Take Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai. According to Jan Murphy in The Patriot-News, medical marijuana brought Turzai to tears. A source tells her he had a “John Boehner-like breakdown,” referencing the former Speaker of the House (federal version) who is known for crying.

Turzai couldn’t be reached for comment, but the paper reports the “surreal” closed-door Republican caucus discussion yesterday got so heated Turzai’s reasons for opposing the bill could not be understood through the tears. Then he walked out. Despite Turzai’s tears, Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana bill advanced out of committee afterward with bipartisan support.

The bill passed the Senate in May by a 40-7 vote, but the House is expected to amend the bill. Some say they’re worried about the bill not going far enough, like the mother of child whose seizures can be treated with marijuana. Medical pot has shown amazing promise for patients with treatment-resistant child epilepsy.

Spearheaded by people (and parents of children) whose conditions improve when using marijuana, a group called Campaign 4 Compassion has had great success lobbying for a Pennsylvania medical marijuana bill. Pennsylvania is the only state in the Northeast with total cannabis prohibition and only one of three states east of the Mississippi (West Virginia, Indiana) without medical marijuana.

You can read Senate Bill 3 below.

Pennsylvania Senate Bill 3 — Medical Marijuana