BREAKING: Montco Senator's Medical Marijuana Bill Passed In Pennsylvania

An overwhelming bipartisan majority approved the medical cannabis bill on Tuesday in the Pennsylvania Senate, according to State Senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery/Delaware).

Leach, who sponsored Senate Bill 3 from its conception with Senator Mike Folmer (R-Dauphin/Lebanon/York), was one of 19 Democrats and 21 Republicans who supported the measure, passing it by a 40-7 margin, he said.

“Today, the Senate showed it stands with the 88% of Pennsylvanians who support medical cannabis,” Leach said in a press release. “A huge, bipartisan majority supported SB3 because it will allow children suffering from devastating seizure disorders, veterans suffering from PTSD, and cancer patients being ravaged by the side effects of chemotherapy, among others, to get the medicine they need.”

Under the new bill, Pennsylvania residents would be eligible to be treated with medical cannabis for a wide variety of illnesses, but they would not be able to smoke it, the text of the bill states.

“Every day that passes without medical cannabis in Pennsylvania is another day of needless suffering,” Leach added, calling it a “moral issue, not a partisan issue.”

“If any one of us had a sick child, a sick mother, a sick brother, that’s the only thing in the world we would care about,” Leach said in a speech on the floor of the Senate after the bill was passed. “This is going to make a huge difference in the lives of so many people.”

Leach has also previously cited the economic opportunity which legalizing marijuana - not just medical marijuana - could present. During a trip to Colorado in July 2014, he noted in an Op-Ed that marijuana growing facilities “employed doctors, medical technicians, mechanical engineers and extensive support staff. The dispensaries employed security, technicians, and even the sales force, known as bud-tenders, had to be highly educated about their products, and thus commanded a very good salary.”

“Further, the tax revenues coming into the state are astronomical,” Leach wrote. “It is estimated that in the first six months of legal cannabis, the State of Colorado has pulled in well over $50 million in direct tax revenues, plus millions more from licensing fees, and indirect businesses such as paraphernalia companies, apparel, tourism, etc.”

The bill will now be sent to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, who will also need to approve it before getting a final signature into law from Gov. Tom Wolf.

Given the broad bipartisan support the bill received in the Senate, it would appear likely the bill is primed to become law. However, a similar bill passed through the Pennsylvania Senate in the fall of 2014 and was later rejected in the House.

Opponents of the bill were largely social conservatives concerned with family values and and with the reliability of marijuana’s use as medicine.

“One reason I still oppose medical marijuana,” wrote Sen. Lloyd Smucker (R-Lancaster) on his Twitter account, “@PAMEDSociety doctors not convinced it won’t do more harm than good.”

Smucker posted to Twitter a link to a letter from the Pennsylvania Medical Society that cites contradictory research, including evidence that seizures in epileptic children worsened after using medical marijuana.

Folmer, another sponsor of the legislation, said that he believed the final version of the bill which the Senate passed reflected such concerns.

“I believe in its present form Senate Bill 3 represents a balance between the advocates who want greater access to medical cannabis and those who continue to have concerns,” Folmer said in a press release. Hopefully we have established a solid foundation for consideration and deliberation in the House.”

In addition to Smucker, dissenting votes included Sen. John Eichelberger (R-Blair/Cumberland/Franklin/Fulton/Huntingdon), Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster), Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Pike/Wayne/Wyoming), Sen. Scott Hutchinson (R-Clarion/Forest/Venango), Sen. Patricia Vance (R-Cumberland/York), and Sen. Michele Brooks (R-Crawford/Mercer).

A complete list of lawmakers and their respective votes on this bill is available to the public on the Senate page of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

If the bill eventually becomes a law, Pennsylvania would become the 24th state, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize medical marijuana, according to DrugPolicy.org, a nonprofit drug policy organization.