Today, Pennsylvania's Department of Health Secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, approved all recommendations of the medical marijuana advisory board.
The most notable of the recommendations was to permit the sale of dry leaf flower to patients. Governor Wolf stated in a press release today that “[a]llowing dry leaf for vaporization will shorten the time it takes to get medication to dispensaries, expand options for the growing number of patients, and hopefully make the program less cost-prohibitive for some patients." It is anticipated that flower will become available for sale this summer.
The approved recommendations will be published as additional or revised regulations on May 12. They include:
Expanding form of medical marijuana to include dry leaf
No current serious medical conditions to be removed
To add the following as additional serious medical conditions: "neurodegenerative disease", "addiction substitute therapy for opioid reduction therapy", "spastic disorders", "medical condition terminally ill - one yr or less"
To add "and other associated neuropathies" to one of the existing serious medical conditions
To revise the definition of serious medical condition "cancer" to also include "remission therapy"
To revise the definition of "severe and intractable pain" to remove contraindication
To not expand the types of medical professionals, and continue to accept input and reconsider at future time
To review and approve serious medical conditions on continuing basis
Patients under 18 to be certified by doctor specializing in child medicine
More research be done on use of medical marijuana for addiction treatment
To encourage Clinical Registrants to study benefits for those with auto-immune diseases
To make no changes to Act 16 regarding the number of Grower/Processors and Dispensaries
To permit Dispensers to purchase ancillary equipment from sources other than Grower/Processors
To permit doctors the option to opt out of the public registry
For more information please contact Kossovsky Law PLLC.