When Lehigh Valley doctor Charles Harris started approving patients for medical marijuana a few years ago, most of them were dealing with chronic pain. Using cannabis helped them tremendously, he said. Patients told him their pain wasn’t keeping them awake at night anymore — they could finally get a good night’s sleep or at least a few hours of rest in a row.
Then, in the summer of 2019, the Pennsylvania Department of Health changed its rules to allow patients to use medical marijuana for another condition: anxiety disorders.
The Health Committee voted nearly unanimously to advance to the House floor the proposed revisions, which would make permanent the current practices of dispensing the drug through curbside pickups and permitting three-month supplies, rather than 30 days, to be dispensed at one time.
Those changes have been permitted by the Health Department under the governor’s declaration of disaster emergency. Voters last week amended the state constitution so that such declarations can no longer continue for more than three weeks without legislative consent.
Most Pennsylvanians don’t have far to travel to buy medical marijuana.
The state’s 100th dispensary opened last week in Chester, quickly followed by the 101st in York and 102nd in Hazelton, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Patients have spent more than $1.1 billion at dispensaries across the state since the first one opened in February 2018.
Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf" or the "Company"), a leading vertically integrated cannabis operator in the United States, has been approved as a Clinical Registrant in Pennsylvania by the Commonwealth's Department of Health, Office of Medical Marijuana. Under this designation, the Company will be permitted to open a cultivation and processing facility and up to six dispensaries, under the Commonwealth's medical marijuana research program.