Medical Marijuana Use in Pennsylvania Wins Lots of Support

Health and law enforcement experts yesterday argued for the legalization of marijuana for medical use in Pennsylvania during a public hearing in Oakland.

More than 70 people attended the hearing at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health to discuss state House Bill 1393, which would make it legal for patients with cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS and other medical conditions to use the drug to relieve pain and other symptoms.

Most were supportive. "I'm advocating the use medicinally because it can definitely alleviate symptoms," said Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist and former Allegheny County coroner.

Wecht testified he has performed 17,000 autopsies and reviewed, supervised or signed off on another 36,000. Never once did he diagnose a marijuana overdose as a cause of death, he said.

Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Philadelphia, introduced the marijuana legalization bill in April 2009. Sen. Daylin Leach, D-King of Prussia, introduced a companion bill in May in the Senate, and Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, recently became a cosponsor.

If the legislation passes, Pennsylvania would join 14 other states, and the nation's capital that have legalized medical marijuana in the last 15 years.

Lester Grinspoon, an associate professor at Harvard University, testified via videoconference at the House Health and Human Services Committee hearing. Grinspoon said he has studied the drug extensively, and found the notion that marijuana is deadly to be a myth.

"It is invariably less toxic than the conventional drugs it displaces," he said.

Ron Owen, who said his daughter died after a battling drug addiction, spoke out against the bill, citing concerns about regulation and the possibility of abuse.

"Do not allow us to become the California of the East," he said.

A Franklin & Marshall College poll in May in Pennsylvania showed that 80 percent of respondents favor legislation to allow medical marijuana. Most of those polled opposed overall legalization of the drug.

Jack Cole, a retired New Jersey narcotics officer and chairman of the organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, favors decriminalizing marijuana.

Cole called the nation's war on drugs "a self-perpetuating, constantly expanding policy disaster."

By Alyssa Karas/PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW