HARRISBURG An emotionally charged debate preceded state senators overwhelmingly passing legislation on Wednesday to legalize several forms of medical marijuana.
However, the legislative session is growing short, House Republican leaders are skeptical of the bill, and Gov. Tom Corbett opposes it.
Although supporters of the bill viewed the vote as historic, Pennsylvania is behind other states: More than 30 others have legalized some form of medical marijuana, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Capping 50 minutes of debate, every Democrat voted yes, as did 20 of 27 Republicans. Several yes votes were from senators who have law-enforcement backgrounds.
Under the proposal, state residents would need an access card from the Health Department after proving they have a practitioner-patient relationship and written confirmation of a qualifying medical condition. A handful of drug delivery methods that do not involve smoking would be permitted under the bill, including extracted oil, edible products, ointments and tinctures.
The chamber's debate had been propelled by parents who believe a marijuana oil extract can help their children who suffer from seizures so debilitating that they worry about whether their child will survive another day. But proponents talked about the wider possibilities it has for treatment of other people, such as veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.
It is cruel and heartless to deny people the best medicine that is available, Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, said during floor debate. And it's time to stop treating this irrationally and saying, We're not going to let you have this, we're going to instead make you take far more dangerous and less effective drugs.' That's just not how we would want to be treated; it's not how we want our families to be treated.
However, the bill would make forms of medical marijuana more widely available than Corbett the state's former attorney general has said he would allow.
Opponents of the bill sought unsuccessfully to change it to bring it more into line with what Corbett has said he would support, namely, making treatment available just to children prone to seizures and administered by certain specialists, while the potential medical benefits of medical marijuana is studied by experts.
Corbett's Democratic challenger in the Nov. 4 election, Tom Wolf, supports the legalization of medical marijuana.
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Pennsylvania Senate OKs medical marijuana bill but proposal in doubt in state