Editorial: It’s time to figure out marijuana in Pennsylvania – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

Pennsylvanians can use marijuana for anxiety or epilepsy. They can use it to ease the side effects of chemotherapy or the symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

There are 23 different medical conditions that will qualify someone for a card allowing them to access medical marijuana.

There is one reason that is just off the table: pleasure. You can use weed because you need it but not because you want it.

The history of marijuana and the law has been comparable in Pennsylvania and neighboring Ohio. Medical cannabis was signed into law in Pennsylvania in April 2016; Ohio did it June 2016. Ohio stopped driver license suspensions for marijuana use at the same time; Pennsylvania took until 2018.

And both have had a push and pull over recreational use. Pennsylvania has teased it out. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, supported it strongly as lieutenant governor. He and then-Gov. Tom Wolf held a listening tour to get opinions from across the state. Wolf called for the legislature to legalize in 2020.

In Ohio, the first attempts to legalize happened in 2015, even before medical use was OK’d. It failed — and not by a little, either. Sixty-five percent of voters rejected the idea. That changed Tuesday when 57% of Ohio voters said yes, making the Buckeye State the 24th state to permit recreational use.

It makes “When will Pennsylvania follow?” a natural question. But does it have to be? That’s hard to say definitively.

The Keystone State is now surrounded by places where an…