Medicinal marijuana bill signed into law by Pennsylvania governor

Pennsylvania has become the 24th state in the country to legalize medicinal marijuana, a move expected to benefit thousands of patients with serious medical conditions and applauded by Republicans and Democrats alike.

“This legislation provides long overdue medical relief to patients and families who need this treatment,” Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said Sunday afternoon during a signing ceremony. “This is a great day for Pennsylvania and a great day for Pennsylvanians.”

The law will enable doctors to prescribe non-smokable forms of marijuana to patients who suffer from any of 17 approved conditions, ranging from cancer and HIV/AIDS to Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. A provision will enable families to acquire medical marijuana from any of the other 23 states where it’s been approved without fear of prosecution starting next month while groundwork is laid out.

The law won’t officially take effect for 30 days, and establishing a framework for regulators, growers and dispensaries could take up to two years, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle saluted colleagues for setting partisan politics aside and getting the ball rolling.

“We stopped being liberals and started being problem-solvers, and we stopped being conservatives and started being compromisers,” said Democratic state Sen. Daylin Leach, PennLive reported. “And we stopped being politicians and started being human beings.”

 

Republican state Sen. Mike Vereb, one of the right’s most vocal proponents of the bill, said he hopes that passage will allow Pennsylvanians with chronic conditions to begin using marijuana in lieu of opioids, which he called “the number-one killer” in the state.

“Opioid abuse has no party, has no color, has no religion,” he said. “Let’s face it, that’s the killer. What we’re doing today is the healer.”

Dana Ulrich, a parent whose daughter suffers from numerous seizures every day, said Sunday that passage of the bill will “save the lives of millions of people from this day on.”

“I never doubted for one second that this day would come,” she said,  according to The Associated Press. “When you get a group of truly dedicated people together, that have the same goal and the same mind and the same hearts, you can achieve anything.”