Share:
Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 8, 2022 10:57 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Daniel Laughlin |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Allowing Medical Cannabis Patients to Purchase Edible Medicine |
| In the near future, I intend to introduce legislation to allow medical cannabis patients to purchase their medicine in edible forms. The legislation will ensure these edible forms of medicine are tested for consistency/potency and designed in a way that does not appeal to children. Additionally, the legislation will require strict regulation on the packaging of edible forms to prevent children and other unauthorized persons from accidental use. As of March 2022, over 400,000 Pennsylvanians have an active patient certification to use medical marijuana. Tens of thousands of these patients use these medicines to treat a medical condition that require gradual relief over an extended period of time. Consuming medical cannabis orally is among the best way to achieve the “time-release” effect that these patients need. Under current law, patients may purchase their medicine in six forms: pills, oils, topicals, dry leaf (which may be vaporized but not smoked), tinctures, and liquids. Grower/processors are currently prohibited from producing medicine in the form of food products and licensed dispensaries are prohibited from selling such products. Currently, patients can attempt to mix a medical marijuana product into an edible form at home to produce an ingestible medicine. Patients do so by making cookies, brownies, and other foods at home which they then store in Tupperware containers and Ziploc bags to consume later. Incorporating medical cannabis into food is complex; many patients struggle to evenly disperse the medical cannabis’s active ingredients, like THC, throughout their food in a way that ensures uniform relief from symptoms. The lack of uniformity can cause patients to accidentally consume too little or too much medicine at once. Pennsylvania’s patients should be able to buy edible medical cannabis that is safe, uniform, and securely packaged and labeled, just as they do in 25 other states that have legalized medical cannabis. Edibles produced by one of Pennsylvania’s licensed grower/processors and tested by one of our approved laboratories would be uniform in their THC distribution and potency, as well as clearly labeled and stored in child-proof containers. Please join me in sponsoring this important piece of legislation. |
Introduced as SB1238