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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 31, 2014 10:00 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Jim Cox |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Act |
| In the near future, I will introduce legislation to allow physicians in Pennsylvania to recommend medicinal cannabis to patients who would medically benefit from such a treatment. At least 21 states and the District of Columbia already have similar laws. I believe the importance of helping those with medical challenges, especially children with seizure disorders who would benefit from a medicinal strain of cannabis, requires our immediate legislative attention. Some children suffer hundreds of seizures a day, making normal childhood development impossible and forcing parents to helplessly watch their children suffer. Prescribed narcotic cocktails of highly addictive and dangerous drugs have little effect on these particular disorders and often offer only a few weeks or months of pause in the decline of a child’s health. A strain of cannabis very high in Cannabidiols (CBD), a compound with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and very low in Tetrahydrocannabinols (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, has been used in other states to treat disorders with dramatic results. This strain, often called “Charlotte’s Web," is more thoroughly explained in this article from last summer: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/charlotte-child-medical-marijuana This legislation, which is companion legislation to Senator Folmer's Senate Bill 1182, would allow patients who have a recommendation from their doctor to purchase and use medical cannabis from licensed Care Centers. The entire process – from the growth of plants to the administration of the medicine to the patient – would be regulated and overseen by the Departments of Health and Agriculture. They will independently verify the system is secure and closed to those not in dire medical need. They will also rigorously test to ensure the cannabis used is of the type allowed under the law. I believe this will also produce health care savings by replacing high-cost, high-risk narcotics with a low-cost, no-side-effect treatment – that is ingested and not smoked. It is cruel and irrational to deny people medicine to alleviate their suffering – especially when we routinely prescribe far more addictive, powerful, and toxic medications for the same conditions. I hope you will join me in ensuring our sick friends and family members will have access to the best medicine available to relieve their pain and suffering. Thank you. . |
Introduced as HB2182