How far does Lehigh Valley support for marijuana go? You might be surprised
And the department is preparing to take the first step, Health Secretary Karen Murphy said at a news conference Tuesday, working with physicians and health systems as it writes the regulations.
The Medical Marijuana Physician Workgroup will be convened within the next few weeks, she said.
Among the participants named in a news release was were Lehigh Valley Health Network.
“Physicians and their medical expertise are crucial to [the program’s] success,” she said.
There is strong support for medical marijuana in the Lehigh Valley. Three-quarters of respondents in the Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll said they support the state’s recent decision to legalize it.
Just 14 percent said they oppose the law, which Gov. Tom Wolf signed in mid-April, making Pennsylvania the 24th state to legalize a comprehensive medical marijuana program.
The poll was based on phone interviews with 411 adults in Lehigh and Northampton counties. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points and was conducted June 13-20.
In the Lehigh Valley, popular support for medical marijuana goes beyond the new law, which limits medical marijuana to the use of extracts such as oils.
Sixty percent of respondents believe people with prescriptions should be allowed to smoke marijuana as well. Twenty-seven percent were against the smoking of medical marijuana, and 13 percent said they weren’t sure.
“I think they should be able to smoke it, eat it, do the oils,” Chris Angelico of Breinigsville said. “I mean, why limit just to the extracts?”
Angelico, who is 27 and recently graduated with a computer science degree from Moravian College in Bethlehem, said he’s also open to the idea of recreational marijuana use. “Cigarettes — we sell those,” he said. “I am way less worried about marijuana than about cigarettes.”
Fewer Lehigh Valley residents — 38 percent — agree with him on that point, however. Just about half of poll respondents said they oppose recreational marijuana use.
While the state’s program won’t be ready for a couple years, Murphy announced earlier this month that applications for "safe harbor" letters were available online. It was the first concrete step toward getting medical marijuana to at least some of the people who could benefit from it.
The letter — for parents, legal guardians and caregivers of minors with serious medical conditions — grants permission to administer medical marijuana within the state.
“It means children with serious medical conditions and those who care for them can begin to experience an increased quality of life,” Murphy said at the time.
While the safe harbor letter is intended to serve as approval for Pennsylvania residents to administer medical marijuana to minors, it has limited authority. Marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law — just like heroin — and the U.S. Department of Justice still has the authority to prosecute people who use it or even possess it.
Additionally, any research proposal to study medical marijuana's impact on the treatment and symptom management of serious medical conditions must be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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