| Photo: WHYY |
State Senator Daylin Leach has announced the introduction of legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Pennsylvania.
Under the bill, Pennsylvania would join 14 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing doctor-supervised medical marijuana for patients with debilitating medical conditions, reports Main Line Media News. Neighboring New Jersey passed its own medical marijuana law earlier this year.
“It’s long past time we move beyond the misinformation and ancient wives’ tales and allow people to have the medicine that will make them feel better,” Leach said. “Medical marijuana has been proven repeatedly to help people who are desperately ill. It is nothing more than gratuitous cruelty to deny it to them.”
Leach’s bill would allow Pennsylvania doctors to recommend medicinal marijuana to eligible patients. According to recent studies, marijuana counters the side effects of chemotherapy, helps to control pain, and relieves symptoms of glaucoma and other chronic conditions.
The bill would mirror H.B. 1393, the Compassionate Use Act, introduced by Rep. Mark Cohen this time last year. That bill is still under deliberation by the House Health and Human Services Committee.
A poll conducted in 2009 by Quinnipiac University found that 59 percent of Pennsylvanians support the legalization of medical marijuana for use by qualified patients.
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