Pa. launches 24th US medical-pot program

Associated Press

HARRISBURG, PA.

Pennsylvania has become the 24th state to legalize a comprehensive medical-marijuana program.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf signed the bill into law Sunday surrounded by a crowd of supporters at the Capitol building in Harrisburg.

“Marijuana is medicine, and it’s coming to Pennsylvania,” said Democratic Sen. Daylin Leach, the bill’s co-sponsor.

The bill’s drafters say it could take two years to write regulations and get retailers opened, but a provision allows parents to legally administer medical marijuana to their children before the bill takes effect in a month.

The bill sets standards for tracking plants, certifying physicians and licensing growers, dispensaries and physicians. Patients could take marijuana in pill, oil, vapor, ointment or liquid form, but would not be able to legally obtain marijuana to smoke or grow.