Tag: Seth A. Goldberg

On April 17, 2016, Pennsylvania became the 24th state to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes when Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed into law Senate Bill 3, known as the “Medical Marijuana Act” (the “Act”).  While the Act will become effective on May 17, 2016, its implementation will not be fully realized until various reports and regulations contemplated in the Act are developed. The Act will be administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (the “Department”).

The Act limits the use of medical marijuana to patients suffering from one of the 17 “Serious Medical Conditions” identified in the Act, which are: cancer; HIV/AIDS; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Parkinson’s disease; multiple sclerosis; epilepsy; inflammatory bowel disease; damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity; neuropathies; Huntington’s disease; Crohn’s disease; post-traumatic stress disorder; intractable seizures; glaucoma; sickle cell anemia; severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is contraindicated or ineffective; and autism.

The Act also restricts the forms in which medical marijuana may be dispensed to patients and caregivers to pill, oil, topical cream/ointment, vaporization, nebulization, tincture or liquid, and it makes smoking and incorporating into edible form unlawful. Continue reading “Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Act: Key Components and Potential Risks”