Legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Pennsylvania was approved by the state House of Representatives Wednesday.
Senate Bill 3, which originally started out in the Senate, was approved in the House by 149-43 late Wednesday afternoon.
The state Senate is expected to pass the bill when it comes up for a vote as soon as next week. If approved by the Senate, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf will have the option to sign SB 3 into law, which he has pledged to do.
Republican State Rep. Scott Petri, whose district covers New Hope, Northampton, Solebury, Upper Makefield and Wrightstown, voted against SB 3. Democratic State Rep. Steve Santarsiero, whose district covers Lower Makefield, Morrisville, Newtown Borough, Newtown Township and Yardley, voted in support of SB 3.
“I applaud the Pennsylvania House for passing legislation to legalize medical marijuana, and I look forward to the Senate sending the bill to my desk. We will finally provide the essential help needed by patients suffering from seizures, cancer and other illnesses,” Wolf said in a statement Wednesday evening.
The legislation has received bipartisan but not unanimous support.
State Rep. Jerry Knowles, a Republican from Schuylkill County, was among the 43 House members not to vote forward the bill. He called marijuana a “gateway drug” and said it is dangerous.
If signed into law, doctors planning to prescribe marijuana for medicinal reasons would have to register with Pennsylvania as a “practitioner.” Dispensaries and those involved with the cultivation and farming process would have to get licensed and pay a start-up fee of $200,000 to the state.
SB 3 would allow practitioners to give patients with various ailments a prescription for marijuana oil and pills.
The proposed law does not allow for recreational marijuana use.
On Tuesday, Wolf joined with Democratic and Republican lawmakers to meet with families who support medical marijuana legalization.
LevittownNow.com previously featured the story of Lorelei Ulrich, an elementary school-aged Bristol Township native. She has suffered from intractable epilepsy all her life and endures roughly 700 seizures per day. Lorelei and her family have been in Harrisburg this week to show support for SB 3.
“Every time I leave my granddaughter I fear it will be the last time I see her. Will a seizure take her before we are together again? I made a promise to myself and to her that I would fight until she got the medicine she so desperately needs and deserves. With a terminal diagnosis myself, my time is growing short. It may already be too late for me but I will never break my promise. I will fight until my last breath to see that she has every opportunity to have the best life possible,” Lorelei’s grandfather Tom Nadzam, a resident of Levittown, said this week in an online post.
As it stands, 23 other states have laws allowing medical marijuana, with only a handful allowing recreational use.
