It marked the first time in 80 years that the cousin of cannabis, once a common cash crop in the state of Pennsylvania, had been legally sown in the state.

"We would have like to have planted it a few weeks ago, but the seeds - from Italy and Canada - were held up in customs," said Diana Martin, spokeswoman for the Rodale Institute in Berks County.

Research scientist Emmanuel Mondi oversees planting near Kutztown on June 9, 2017. It marked the first time the plant has been legally sown in 80 years.

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Mayor Kenney and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration will lead a community summit Saturday to address the opioid epidemic in Philadelphia's Fairhill and West Kensington neighborhoods, epicenter of addiction in the region.

The summit, called "El Barrio Es Nuestro" ("The Community Is Ours"), will give residents a chance to speak in English or Spanish about quality-of-life issues with key city officials, including members of the mayor's recently launched Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic.

"This neighborhood is one of the worst-hit areas in the entire country," Gary Tuggle, the DEA's special agent in charge of the Philadelphia field division, said. "By bringing together health, law enforcement, and community leaders, we hope to come up with a solution."

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[photo] Chris Goldstein, right, shakes hands with police top brass after meeting at La Colombe to discuss his planned "smoke-in" protest on Friday in Rittenhouse Square. (Julia Terruso / Staff)

Members of the Philadelphia Police Department's top brass met with marijuana activists Thursday to hash out how pot citations will be issued at a protest planned for Friday.

"So we'll have everyone light up and then line up," said Nikki Allen Poe, talking with members of the Police Department at a corner table at La Colombe coffee shop at Dilworth Park, "and then you'll do the arr-."

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[photo] It's been reported that President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as his attorney general pick. Sessions has been a vocal opponent of the marijuana industry. (Scott Olson/ AP)

President-elect Donald Trump's announcement that he plans to nominate Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions -- a vocal opponent of marijuana legalization - -- to be the country's next attorney general has many in the young but growing legalized marijuana industry deeply concerned.

That includes in Pennsylvania, which legalized medical marijuana this spring. The state is expected to begin accepting applications for medical cannabis grower/processor and dispenser permits early next year, with the goal of making medical marijuana available to patients by 2018.

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A group of Northumberland County-based entrepreneurs hope to weed out the competition and get one of the two available licenses for operating a medical marijuana dispensary in the Valley.

The main principals of Medical Marijuana Corp. are William E. Rosini, president of Rosini Enterprises, and Shannon D. Rosini, both of Paxinos; Annette Rosini MacLachlan, a former county resident now living in West Chester; Stephen Jacobs, of Shamokin and Christopher Walters, of Mount Carmel.

The state is offering permits for growers and dispensaries in each of six regions across the state.

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A California company hopes to grow medical marijuana in Pocono Township.

The company, CannaMed of Thousand Oaks, has asked the Monroe County township's Board of Supervisors to clarify its zoning definitions to allow it to start up a processing operation, PennLive.com reported.

A company representative recently told supervisors the building, would be about 45,000 square feet and would grow the marijuana and process it into forms including pills and oils.

The company expects to employ between 30 to 50 people.

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[photo] Addy Schultz, 72, cuddling a baby going through opioid withdrawal at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, ( DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer )

Marie McCullough covers health and medicine, with a special focus on cancer and women's health issues.

Study suggests prevention efforts are having an effect on melanoma in Pa., N.J.

As the 13-day-old infant scrunched up his face and squirmed in obvious pain, Addy Schultz tightened her embrace. The baby relaxed in her arms almost instantly.

"When he cramps up, I hold him harder and pat a little firmer," explained Schultz, 72, sitting in a rocking chair in the newborn intensive care unit at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. "They don't like to be stroked or caressed."

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House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Thursday that Congressional Republicans are on a "rescue" mission to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and that he and President-elect Donald Trump are in perfect sync with the process of replacing Obamacare. (CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES)

Funding for mental illness and opioid addiction treatment in Pennsylvania will take a big hit if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, according to research published this week by Harvard Medical School.

More than 181,000 Pennsylvania residents with mental and substance abuse disorders will lose access to services made available under the ACA, concluded Harvard health economics professor Richard G. Frank and New York University public service dean Sherry Glied.

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Repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan is dangerous for the health and economic well-being of our Commonwealth. A new Harvard Medical School and New York University study shows that repealing the ACA would have tragic consequences for millions of Americans affected by mental illness and by the devastating opioid epidemic. 180,526 Pennsylvanians suffering from mental illness or substance use disorder will lose access to critical mental health services that the ACA makes possible.

Pennsylvania ranks among the highest in the nation in opioid overdose-related deaths and prescribing rates. Nationwide, the study estimates that more than 4 million Americans with serious mental illness or substance use disorders, of whom about 222,000 have an opioid use disorder, would lose some or all of their insurance coverage.

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center, arrives in the Assembly chamber of the Statehouse to deliver his State Of The State address Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017, in Trenton, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

TRENTON - Gov. Christie vowed Tuesday to devote his final year in office to battling drug addiction, skirting other challenges confronting New Jersey as he delivered an unusual and impassioned State of the State address focused almost exclusively on the issue.

Telling personal stories of people affected by addiction - a state employee whose son died from a heroin overdose two days after she celebrated his sobriety at a Statehouse vigil; the son of a state Supreme Court justice, now in recovery and opening a treatment center - Christie said he hoped to make New Jersey an example for the nation on drug recovery.

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(AP Photo/Mel Evans) Gov. Christie, holding hands with daughter Sarah Christie, as wife Mary Pat Christie follows, leaves the Assembly chamber of the Statehouse after he delivered his State Of The State address Tuesday in Trenton.

TRENTON - When Haddonfield native AJ Solomon graduated from college in 2012, he landed a job with a longtime family friend: Gov. Christie.

But Solomon, who had abused painkillers and since become a heroin addict, was spinning out of control, buying dope in Camden on his way to the Statehouse. By 2014, he left an Arizona treatment center intent on flying home, saying goodbye to his parents, and killing himself.

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Overdose Deaths Up Sharply in Pa.

Drug-related fatalities rose 23.4 percent in Pennsylvania last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Philadelphia Division reports in its second annual statewide analysis. Previous years' data come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also relies on death certificates from coroners' offices but has not yet released U.S. or any state numbers for 2015.

The Drug Enforcement Administration found big differences by county. County numbers can change significantly from year to year, so short-term trends may not be meaningful.

[graphic, http://www.philly.com/philly/infographics/386564601.html ]

[end]

A part-time Donora police officer has been arrested for stealing 133 stamp bags of heroin that were seized as evidence after the execution of a search warrant.

James B. Johnson V, 29, of Monongahela, was charged Tuesday with several drug offenses, theft, obstruction, tampering and misapplication of entrusted property.

The charges were announced today by the Washington County district attorney's office.

Authorities accused Officer Johnson of stealing the evidence following an Aug. 10 seizure.

Police said Officer Johnson admitted to the theft and said he took the heroin "for his personal consumption."

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[photo] (JESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer) Mayor Jim Kenney speaks to the media after attending a meeting about the task force he's asked to develop a plan to address the opioid crisis in Philadelphia, the meeting took place at 801 Market Street, January 11, 2017.

Drug overdose deaths in Philadelphia surged to 900 last year - nearly a 30 percent increase in a single year - as the nation continued to grapple with an epidemic of opioid use and abuse.

City health officials Wednesday announced the numbers as Mayor Kenney convened a 16-member task force comprised of health and law officials.

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Last weekend's frightening and widely reported string of overdoses in Philadelphia - nine deaths in 36 hours, according to police - was just part of what officials suspect was a devastating five days that left 35 people dead.

It started Dec. 1, when 12 people died between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. "We have never seen that before," said Sam P. Gulino, the city's chief medical examiner.

Then came four more deaths last Friday, seven on Saturday, nine on Sunday, and three on Monday. The total could still rise, as deaths that initially appeared natural are investigated for drug links.

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[photo] (ED HILLE / Staff Photographer) William McMonigle and Amy Zaccario of Havertown, who both lost their fathers to heroin overdoses in Philadelphia, are now planning the funeral of their best friend, Sean Jimenez, who died of a heroin overdose in Kensington on Monday.

At home in Jenkintown, Sean Jimenez had a decent job, a woman who loved him, and two young sons who bore a striking resemblance to Dennis the Menace, just as he did when he was little.

Gallery:

But Monday night on a Kensington sidewalk, Jimenez had nothing but the clothes on his back, a few dollars in his pocket, a cellphone, and a drug addiction that apparently took his life. He was pronounced dead there at 11:10 p.m.

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[photo] Photo by Don Sapatkin / Staff Dr. Thomas C. Barone, a family physician, practiced in Center City until the State Board of Osteopathic Medicine suspended his license after four current and former patients died of opioid overdoses. Photo taken following his testimony at a reinstatement hearing in Harrisburg on Sept. 16, 2016.

Don Sapatkin covers a wide-ranging public health beat and doubles as deputy health and science editor. He joined the Inquirerin 1987.

The Pennsylvania Board of Osteopathic Medicine refused Wednesday to let Thomas C. Barone, a pain management physician whose prescribing practices were linked to the deaths of four patients, return to his Center City practice.

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Charito Morales, a registered nurse and advocate, leads a group through "El Campamento," a camp of homeless drug users under a railroad bridge in Fairhill. (TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer)

Mike Newall has been writing for the Inquirer since 2010. Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., he has been writing about Philadelphia crime, courts, politics, and neighborhoods since 2003. Before joining the Inquirer, he was a staff writer and columnist for Philadelphia Weekly and Philadelphia City Paper. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and dog.

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Charles Cutler is an internal medicine specialist from Norristown.

Want to know what's important in medicine today?

Ask Charles Cutler, an internal medicine specialist from Norristown who last month was sworn in as the 167th president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society.

The society's 16,000 members are physicians and medical students throughout the state. Among the issues it promotes are leadership, education, and public health.

Cutler, a member for 35 years, belongs to numerous other medical organizations, including the Board of Trustees of the Montgomery County Medical Society. He is a member of Einstein Physicians Norriton, a part of the Einstein Healthcare Network.

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[photo] Dr. Deepak Ariga holds a needle favored by drug users in Hammond on April 9, 2015. (Jim Karczewski, Post-Tribune)

An HIV outbreak in Scott County, Ind., has infected 106 people. Can needle exchanges stem the tide?

An HIV outbreak in Scott County, Ind., has infected 106 people thus far, and despite reservations, Gov. Mike Pence green-lit a 30-day needle exchange program to stem the tide.

But public health advocates say the exchange program should be extended to really make an impact and expanded across the state as such programs have been shown to be effective in stemming the tide of HIV and hepatitis C infection among IV drug users.

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