State Regulations
The Legalization of Cannabis in Pennsylvania
Recreational use of marijuana is illegal in the state of Pennsylvania as a whole but it is decriminalized in Pittsburg and Philadelphia. Medical use is however legal as per the law signed in by Governor Wolf on April 17, 2016.
To qualify, one has to be certified by a licensed doctor that is state-approved. Thereafter, one obtains a card enabling them to purchase medical cannabis from a licensed medical marijuana dispensary. The 2016 bill qualified 17 conditions for treatment with medical cannabis. Since then, the list has grown to 23 which have listed below:
- Anxiety disorders
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease
- Autism
- Cancer
- Crohn’s Disease
- “Damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity”
- Spastic and dyskinetic movement disorders
- Epilepsy
- Glaucoma
- HIV and AIDS
- Huntington’s Disease
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Intractable Seizures
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Neurodegenerative diseases
- Neuropathies (nerve damage)
- Opioid use disorder
- Parkinson’s disease
- PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder)
- “Severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is contraindicated or ineffective”
- Sickle Cell Anemia
- Terminal illness
- Tourette syndrome
Possession and transportation are only allowed for medical cannabis while growing are illegal in all its forms. Possessing 30 g (1.1 oz.) or less can earn you a jail term of not more than 30 or a fine of $500 while anything more than that could get you fined $5000 or given a jail sentence not exceeding one year.
Why should Pennsylvania legalize recreational marijuana?
Legal marijuana is gaining momentum to be a great industry and legalizing it means that the state can benefit from and regulate it. Legalizing it ensures that proper measures are put in place and revenues are collected to keep systems running. As states such as Pennsylvania ruminate on whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, considering the potential gains will go a long way.
