Medical marijuana

The Pennsylvania Senate on Wednesday voted to approve SB 1182, which would create a medical marijuana program for qualified patients.

(AP File Photo)

More than three-quarters (76.57 percent) of readers who weighed in Wednesday on a lehighvalleylive.com poll support the Pennsylvania Senate's efforts to legalize medical marijuana, as of mid-afternoon.

As of about 2:30 p.m., 10.75 percent said they disagreed with the effort.

In addition, nearly one in 10 respondents called the proposed law too restrictive.

We asked readers to weigh in a day after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass

and send it to the House, where it faces an uphill battle against time — six legislative days remain in the 2013-14 session — and leaders of the Republican majority who say this is a question for Congress, not the states. Including New Jersey, 23 states plus the District of Columbia have medical cannabis programs. Two of those, Colorado and Washington, permit recreational sales to anyone 21 and older.

Some commenters on Wednesday's poll post took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the question, referencing Pennsylvania's state-run liquor industry:

DohBiden said:

PA would never think of legalizing a mind-altering product. PA would never think of paying half-wit, unionized cashiers above market wages and a pension to sell it. PA would never think of collecting a 6% sales tax and a non-itemized, 18% Johnstown Flood Tax on it. Oh wait ......

Carmello and NJISSCREWED called for full legalization, saying, respectively:

It should be legal for medical use, recreational use AND industrial use. All three uses are important. After all, an acre of marijuana makes 4 times as much paper as an acre of trees.

and

Legalize it for recreational use, tax it, and use the revenue for property tax relief. The schools will be funded, the homeowners will have extra income to spur the economy, and the snack food and video game industry will also benefit.

chopman14 took the opposing view, saying Pennsylvania doesn't need another potentially dangerous substance, saying in response to other commenters:

I'm educated enough to have had a friend completely ruin his life after he began experimenting with marijuana. It opened the door to all sorts of other drugs including cocaine and ecstasy. He's not the only story. It's a fact that marijuana is a gateway drug. Maybe not for all but for some.

Please educate me on the positives of a drug that causes hallucinations, anxiety, depression, rapid mood swings, increased blood pressure and heart rate, impaired driving and decision making, not to mention the fact that you are inhaling and exhaling smoke (granted to my knowledge marijuana doesn't contain the same chemicals as cigarettes do but you get my point).