What changes could be coming to Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program?

One proposal would allow medical marijuana to be prescribed for any health condition

• Scott LaMar
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

Close up doctor holding marijuana bud

Airdate: July 6th, 2023

Legalizing marijuana for medical purposes was considered a major milestone in Pennsylvania seven years ago because it got so much support from Pennsylvanians and lawmakers of both political parties. But it also appears to be a work in progress.

There are proposals to loosen regulations to allow doctors to approve medical marijuana for any health condition rather than just the ones allowed by law now. Spotlight PA’s Ed Mahon has been following the medical marijuana program for some time and told us more on The Spark Friday, “Right now you need to have a specific condition like anxiety, chronic pain, cancer, HIV-AIDS, epilepsy. There are a bunch of very specific ones and some of them aren’t specific. The big three are anxiety, chronic pain and PTSD as the reason people get a card. In Pennsylvania, there is a push to get rid of that list entirely and leave it up to a doctor to say you have a medical condition and I think it would help you so you’re free to go.”

Another proposed change would allow doctors to advertise that they can approve medical marijuana.

Mahon discussed what isn’t addressed in current proposals,”Right now, if you have cannabis in your system, even though you’re not high, even though you’re not impaired while driving, it can still show up in your system and that can lead to DUI charges. And that’s that’s a major concern. There’s been some action to try and push changes through on that, but they haven’t passed yet and they’re not addressed in this bill. There’s employment protections for patients. Similar issue. The law itself has protections, some protections in place, but they’re also nebulous or contradictory. So employees can be in a position where if they test positive for cannabis, they can lose their job, even if there’s not evidence of impairment while they were working.”

More proposals are out there that could set the stage if marijuana became legal for recreational purposes like allowing those who grow marijuana for medical purposes to grow it for adult use as well. But that would only happen if if marijuana is legalized for adult use in Pennsylvania.