Coming To Pennsylvania: Medical Marijuana
On April 29, 2009 Rep. Mark B. Cohen, the Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, introduced the first bill ever in Pennsylvania to legalize medical marijuana.
The bill, HB1393, is solid legislation that would allow registered patients to grow six plants or purchase cannabis through Compassion Centers. A provision in the bill allows these sales to be taxed.
Representative Cohen has taken on the issue with compassion, courage and drive. At a press conference about the bill on 4/29 Cohen said, "It's time to create a new, honest image for marijuana," Cohen continued, "One as a form of treatment that when prescribed by responsible doctors could help thousands of patients across this commonwealth."
Already, Governor Ed Rendell’s spokesperson has said the Governor believes if doctors say a patient needs marijuana, patients should have access to it.
Also at the press conference were two local marijuana patients: Chuck Homan, a roofer from Manheim Township and Jesse Sullivan a former prison guard from York County.
I participated in the press conference as an advocate representing Pennsylvanians for Medical Marijuana or PA4MMJ.
The reaction from the media and the public has been resoundingly positive. Harrisburg's legislative press pool is known to be rather conservative, yet the issue was treated with a serious tone and the coverage was certainly fair.
Three newspaper Editorial Boards have endorsed the issue: The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Pocono Record and the Daily Review of Towanda.
The bill has already been referred to the PA House Health and Human Services Committee, which is expected to begin public hearings on the issue this summer.
Over 35,000 marijuana violation arrests were performed in PA in 2008. No one knows how many were using cannabis medicinally. But putting someone with cancer, HIV or MS into the corrections system is a costly endeavor for the State and devastating for the patients themselves.
Thankfully with the introduction of this HB1393, PA is on the way to stopping these needless arrests. Most important, this bill will help get this proven therapy to thousands who could find relief from cannabis.
Those who wish to support the bill may visit pa4mmj.org .
Here’s an incomplete media track for the introduction of HB1393.
First a youtube video of myself and Jesse Sullivan at the press conference.
Next a TV piece by the Harrisburg ABC affiliate Channel 27
Print articles:
KYW1060 NewsRadio – on Medical Marijuana Bill
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Madam Potts
Dan Shapiro
Lairderg
Bill Beck
Hadrian
Beth Mann
Salon.com
Comments
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In all seriousness California is a model of democratic reform. Theraputic cannabis has been legally available since 1996. The surrounding canabis industry has been contributing quite a few millions of dollars in property, sales and business taxes for many years.
Hard to not to be thinkin about all that cash:)
I thank you for the great work and all you do freedom.
Maybe things are finally changing for the better. This gives me hope.
Good luck with it PA. Hopefully they'll set a trend.
It's a crazy world out there. My father-in-law died a few years ago from a terminal and excruciatingly painful cancer called mesothelioma. In the last few months of his life, he was undergoing chemotherapy which was causing even more pain. He asked the doc for a prescription for oxycontin. It's an incredibly effective analgesic, but you know what the doc said?
"I can't give that to you, it's incredibly addictive."
Perhaps someday, we'll realize that we're in the 21st century and abandon the puritanistic concepts of the 18th century
But, not much danger in arresting a 17 year old smoking a joint....or any pot smokers, for that matter! Of course, if I were a police officer and spent my time "saving the world" from pot smokers, I'd feel like a damned fool and a fraud!!
Chuck has been an active advocate for Medical Marijuana for years, and has conducted rallies in Harrisburg on April 20 and May 2 to educate citizens and legislators, with more to follow. As Representative Cohen said, we need "a new, honest image of marijuana. We need to have cures, not wars on patients."
Chuck is working with his people, with Philly NORML and with anyone who supports patients' rights to a medicine which is legal in 13 other states, over a quarter of the Nation. As one woman at his April 20 rally asked, "How absurd is making a plant a crime, as if something were feloniously wrong with nature?" Chuck says, "There's a big difference between a 17-year-old smoking a joint outside a movie theatre for kicks and a 58-year-old man using the only substance which relieves his insomnia, depression and pain so he can do his work and feed his family."
Please see Chuck's website at MedicalMovement.com for further information. Thanks for all you do.
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Jeffrey T. Spangler
Press Agent for Chuck Homan
Read tinyurl.com/1mn and tinyurl.com.potconviction to see how it's not a war on (some) drugs, it's a war on minorities. After the north won the Civil War and outlawed slavery, corrupt, racist federal officials outlawed the *NATURALLY GROWING* substances that minorities were using so they could arrest nonviolent people and throw them into prison to replace slave labor with prison labor.
Working on this PA bill has shown me just how much support there is for theraputic cannabis everywhere in America.
Medical Marijuana deserves to be looked at by every state and this is the first time for PA.
The media coverage continues and support is quickly building.
But there's gonna be no rebranding anytime soon drifter....although an incomplete label in many ways 'medical marijuana' is kind of here to stay, thankfully.