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Hearing politicians, including Gov. Tom Corbett, call for expanding where you can buy liquor in Pennsylvania but opposing the legalization of medical marijuana that could help sick children was too much for Sen. Mike Folmer.

The conservative Lebanon County Republican felt compelled to offer a brief, but passionate speech on the Senate floor on Monday about what he considers the "high mark of hypocrisy."

He is irked to hear Gov. Tom Corbett and legislative leaders talk about privatizing the liquor system while but his bill that would make a marijuana derivative legal as an alternative form of medicine sits idle in the Senate Law and Justice Committee.

A spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware County, said he understands Folmer is looking to add an amendment to his bill and is considering asking for a second public hearing focused on that amendment.

Folmer said he is certain his bill has enough votes to get out of committee if it were put to a vote. He also said he estimates that at least 35 of the 50 senators would support it if it reaches the Senate floor.

Yet, he said all he hears about is his bill is the “Trojan horse to the legalization of cannabis. That it would be a gateway to drug use for our youth.”

Folmer said the people who say that seem all for making six packs available in convenience stores and liquor for sale in more places even though alcohol is “the number one drug addiction problem we have in this commonwealth and in this nation.”

Corbett spokesman Jay Pagni declined to comment on Folmer's hypocrisy argument but instead Pagi repeated the governor's stance of waiting to see what the Food and Drug Administration's clinical trials of cannabidiol (CBD) determine.

“The governor looks forward to seeing what those trials yield and will make decisions based on the efficacy of CBD when those trials are over,” Pagni said. “That being said, marijuana use for recreational or medicinal purposes is illegal in Pennsylvania.”

Folmer has a collage of pictures of children and mothers he has met who are pleading to have this “one more arrow in their quiver to fight for their child’s life,” he said. He also said it would be a help to suicidal veterans suffering with post-traumatic stress as well as cancer patients.

“What right do we in government have to stand between a person fighting for their life and their medical personnel?” Folmer said in an interview after his floor speech. “They can hide behind the FDA and the federal government all they want. But these children are running of out of time.”