In keeping with the report, a serious problem for Pennsylvania’s 384,254 registered hashish sufferers is value.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A brand new report by advocacy group People for Secure Entry (ASA) offers Pennsylvania a C+ grade for affected person entry to medical hashish.
The report launched on Feb. 22 ranks state insurance policies on medical hashish based mostly on six classes encompassing 120 metrics. Pennsylvania’s C+ grade is barely above the report’s nationwide common grade of a D.
In keeping with the report, a serious problem for Pennsylvania’s 384,254 registered hashish sufferers is value.
A Pennsylvania medical marijuana ID card prices $50, however the physician appointment to qualify for the cardboard averages round $175 to $250. The cardboard should be renewed yearly and requires a further physician appointment. These prices don’t embrace the value of the medical hashish itself.
“That is one thing yr in and yr out we hear from hashish sufferers,” stated Abbey Roudebush, ASA’s director of presidency affairs. “It’s one thing that I hear about positively most frequently when sufferers discuss in regards to the burden of this program.”
Sufferers can nonetheless be fired from their jobs or evicted from their houses for medical hashish use in Pennsylvania.
State Rep. Chris Rabb (D-Philadelphia), himself a medical hashish affected person, stated lawmakers have to create civil protections for sufferers.
“The legal guidelines haven’t been modernized appropriately to deal with the concerns of law-abiding hashish sufferers like myself,” he stated.
Amongst state legislators, bipartisan help can also be rising for full leisure hashish legalization.
“We’re certainly debating the potential of legalizing adult-use hashish,” Rabb affirmed.
But, affected person advocates warn authorized leisure hashish mustn’t decrease regulatory requirements for medical hashish.
“Grownup-use legal guidelines are separate from medical hashish legal guidelines,” Roudebush stated. “The 2 applications can coexist in a state however one will not be a alternative for the opposite, and so they do want to stay separate.”
Affected person advocates stated it’s arduous to navigate medical hashish legal guidelines throughout all 50 states, particularly when not all states acknowledge affected person standing granted from one other state, even when each states have medical hashish applications.
“Simply since you’re touring someplace doesn’t imply that you simply don’t want that medicine anymore,” Roudebush stated.
Solely the federal authorities has the ability to standardize medical hashish rules throughout states.
“Till we move federal laws, sufferers are going to stay prisoners of their medicine,” stated ASA founder and president Steph Shere.
