Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf signed the bill into law Sunday
afternoon surrounded by a jubilant crowd of supporters at
the Capitol building in Harrisburg.
"Marijuana is medicine and it's coming to Pennsylvania,"
said Democratic Sen. Daylin Leach, the bill's co-sponsor.
The bill's drafters say it could take two years to write
regulations and get retailers opened, but a provision allows
parents to legally administer medical marijuana to their
children before the bill takes effect in a month.
The bill sets standards for tracking plants,
certifying physicians and licensing growers,
dispensaries and physicians. Patients could take
marijuana in pill, oil, vapor, ointment or liquid form,
but would not be able to legally obtain marijuana to
smoke or grow.
Sen. Mike Vereb, a Republican, called on lawmakers to
take on what he called "the number-one killer in
Pennsylvania" - opioid abuse.
"Opioid abuse has no party, has no color, has no
religion," Vereb said. "Let's face it, that's the
killer. What we're doing today is the healer."
Among those celebrating the victory was parent Dana
Ulrich, who has fought for legal access to the drug in
the belief that it would help her 8-year-old daughter
Lorelei, who has numerous seizures every day.
"I never doubted for one second that this day would
come," she told the crowd, thanking patient advocates
and caregivers as well as lawmakers and the governor.
"When you get a group of truly dedicated people
together, that have the same goal and the same mind and
the same hearts, you can achieve anything."
Wolf called it "a great, great day for Pennsylvania,
but more important, a great day for Pennsylvanians." He
said he and lawmakers were responding not to a special
interest group or to campaign contributors, but to "a
real human need."
"When you have people who represent a cause as
eloquently and in as heartfelt a way as the advocates
for this have done, it shows that we can actually get
something done that means something," Wolf said.
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