Pubdate: Thu, 26 Feb 2015
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2015 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Amy Worden

PA. SEEN NEAR A MEDICAL POT LAW

Sponsors of a Bill in the House Predict Easy Passage in the Senate 
and Say Legalization Could Come As Early As July.

HARRISBURG - With the state Senate and the governor on board, and 
House leaders showing positive interest, lawmakers advocating for 
medical marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania say they are convinced 
it will become law as early as July.

"This is going to pass the Senate, and we've got votes in the House 
by a wide margin," said Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery), cosponsor 
of the bill, following a hearing on the issue Wednesday.

Sen. Mike Folmer (R., Lebanon), the bill's lead sponsor, is chairman 
of the state government committee, which will vote on the bill in April.

"We had to have the hearing to vet what we're doing," Folmer said. 
"We know it's controversial, but we plan to get it to the floor ASAP."

Though likely to be amended, the bill now contains the same language 
as legislation that passed the Senate overwhelmingly last session, 
specifying what diseases and conditions would be eligible and setting 
up a distribution and regulatory framework.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R., Indiana) said Wednesday he 
expects to hold hearings in March and wants to iron out regulatory 
issues before moving the bill through. See page 20

 From page B1 "I'm committed to trying to find a product and getting 
the product to the folks who can benefit," he said.

Gov. Wolf has said he would sign such a bill.

At Wednesday's hearing, testimony by doctors with the Pennsylvania 
Medical Society, which opposes the bill, drew angry reaction from 
Folmer and Leach.

Steven Shapiro, a pediatrician from Montgomery County and a member of 
the society's board of trustees, said the legislature ought to wait 
for the outcomes of several studies on the drug's impact now 
underway, including one at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for 
children with epilepsy.

"We don't know the dosage or the risk benefits," said Bruce MacLeod, 
the group's past president. "Drugs cause bad things. We want to 
reduce pain and suffering. ... We don't want to cause harm."

Folmer and Leach fired back with citations of peer-reviewed studies 
showing that medical cannabis eases pain for many suffering from many 
different conditions.

"Your representations are false," Leach said, drawing applause from 
audience members in the packed hearing room. "It's odd that a group 
that represents physicians would tell physicians what to prescribe."

Other doctors testified that studies show how medical cannabis not 
only brings relief to patients suffering from childhood epilepsy, 
cancer, multiple sclerosis, and anxiety disorders, among others, it 
is safer than traditional opioids, or narcotics, which can have 
severe side effects.

Colleen Barry, a professor at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg 
School of Public Health, coauthored a study in the Journal of the 
American Medical Association that compared narcotic overdoses in 
states with medical marijuana laws.

Her study found the rate of opioid deaths in states with medical 
marijuana laws was 25 percent lower that the average rate in those 
where it remained illegal.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom