Politics
Terminally Ill Patients Could Use Medical Marijuana In Hospitals Under Bill Advancing In Pennsylvania
A Pennsylvania Senate committee has approved a bill to allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
The Senate Law & Justice Committee advanced the legislation from Sen. John Kane (D) in a unanimous vote on Tuesday, months after a similar proposal was passed by the full House of Representatives.
As approved by the Senate panel, SB 1035 would allow patients who have a prognosis of less than a year left to live to use medical marijuana in hospitals, long-term care nursing homes, hospices and other facilities.
Smoking or vaping wouldn’t be allowed, however, and medical marijuana would need to be stored in locked containers. The right to use medical cannabis would also not apply to patients receiving emergency services.
Healthcare facilities would need to develop written guidelines for the on-site use of medical marijuana.
Sen. Dan Laughlin (R), who chairs the committee that approved the bill, said ahead of the vote that his own experiences with back surgery “makes me very compassionate to the people that either can’t take opioids for their pain, or for whatever reason choose not to, and this is an alternate path for them to seek some relief.”
The measure also provides that facilities can suspend compliance with the state law if the Department of Justice, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or another federal agency takes action against a healthcare facility over the use of medical cannabis or enacts a policy that “expressly prohibits the use of medical marijuana in health care facilities.”
The section of the bill clarifies however, that it “shall not be construed to permit a health care facility to prohibit patient use of medical marijuana due solely to the fact that cannabis is a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act…or other Federal constraints on the use of medical marijuana that were in existence prior to the effective date of this paragraph.”
The legislation would take effect within 60 days if enacted into law.
Kane wrote in a cosponsorship memo last year that “hospitals are incredible places where patients receive top notch care.”
“They need guidance and legal protections to provide terminally ill patients with options to manage pain, while providing settings that support family and friends who are saying goodbye to a loved one,” he said.
The policy that’s being proposed in the bill is known as “Ryan’s law,” a reference to Ryan Bartell, a cancer patient who inspired versions of the legislation that have been introduced and enacted in states across the U.S.
“During his treatments in California the hospital provided him with opioid medications that caused him to be sedated and unable to interact with family and friends,” Kane said. “Ryan and his family wanted to ensure that his remaining days could be filled with visits from his loved ones. So, Ryan moved to a hospital in the State of Washington where he used medical marijuana to manage his pain effectively and allow him to stay awake and alert to spend time with family and friends during hospital visits.”
“Ryan’s law would allow terminally ill patients to use non-smoking forms of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania hospitals,” he said. “Right now, the use of medical marijuana in hospitals is a gray area due to marijuana being a Scheduled I Narcotic, while also being legal for medicinal purposes in Pennsylvania.”
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers in Pennsylvania are stepping up the call for broader marijuana legalization.
The speaker of the Democratic-controlled House said last week that the state could legalize recreational marijuana next year if her party wins a handful of seats in the November elections and takes a Senate majority.
The House last year passed a bill to legalize marijuana and put sales in state-owned dispensaries, but the Republican Senate majority has criticized that plan while also not advancing a cannabis legalization model of its own.
A Democratic senator recently filed a discharge resolution seeking to bring a bipartisan cannabis bill out of committee.
A Republican senator said she will soon file legislation to keep hemp THC products legal in the state while adding age limits as well as new requirements for registration, testing and labeling.
A separate bill that has already been introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate would create a new Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to oversee the state’s medical marijuana program and significantly restrict most hemp THC products. That legislation was defeated on the Senate floor in June, though it is pending reconsideration.
—
Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.
Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—
The legislative maneuvering around cannabis comes as a recent poll shows that Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly support marijuana legalization—and that the largest share put the blame on Republican lawmakers for the fact that the state has not yet enacted the reform.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) has repeatedly called on lawmakers to send him a marijuana legalization bill and for the last several years has included the reform in his budget requests to the legislature.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Stacy Garrity, who is running against Shapiro, recently pledged to veto a marijuana legalization bill if lawmakers ever sent one to her desk—though she added that she doesn’t think the reform stands a chance of making it that far in the state.
Her running mate for lieutenant governor, Jason Richey, claimed that legalizing marijuana would be “catastrophic” for the state, arguing it would increase the size of the illegal market, undermine job creation and harm public health.
The governor earlier this year, as he has in past years, included cannabis legalization and the resulting expected revenue in his budget request.
The state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) reported in February that legalizing cannabis in Pennsylvania would generate nearly half a billion dollars in annual revenue by 2028, an estimate that is a significantly larger cash windfall compared to projections from Shapiro’s own office.
A spokesperson in the governor’s office said the Trump administration’s federal marijuana rescheduling move is an “important step” that “adds support” to his push to legalize cannabis. A GOP senator also said that federal reform will make it easier to legalize marijuana in the state.
hemp cosponsotship memo
