HARRISBURG, May 4, 2010 – State Senator Daylin Leach (D-Delaware/Montogomery) today at a Capitol press conference announced the introduction of legislation to permit medical marijuana in Pennsylvania.
The bill would allow Pennsylvania to join fourteen other states and the District of Columbia in offering doctor-supervised marijuana programs to residents with debilitating medical conditions. New Jersey passed their safe access law earlier this year.
"It's long past time we move beyond the misinformation and ancient wives' tales and allow people to have the medicine that will make them feel better,” Leach said. “Medical Marijuana has been proven repeatedly to help people who are desperately ill. It is nothing more than gratuitous cruelty to deny it to them."
Leach’s bill would allow physicians in Pennsylvania to prescribe medicinal marijuana to eligible patients. According to recent studies, marijuana has been proven to counter the side effects of chemotherapy, control pain and relieve symptoms of glaucoma and other chronic conditions. The bill will mirror H.B. 1393, The Compassionate Use Act, introduced by Rep. Mark Cohen this time last year. That bill is currently under deliberation by the House Health and Human Services Committee.
Today’s press conference, held in in the Capitol Media Center, featured testimony from lawmakers, medical professionals, law enforcement officials and local patients who support medical marijuana in the Commonwealth. A poll conducted in 2009 by Quinnipiac University found that 59 percent of Pennsylvania residents support the legalization of medical marijuana for use by eligible patients.
The bill is currently circulating for co-sponsors.
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