Wednesday, July 26, 2017, Acting Secretary of Health and Physician General Rachel Levine, M. D. announced that physicians can now take the first steps to participate in the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program, “Since April 2016, we’ve been working to implement a patient-focused Medical Marijuana Program for Pennsylvanians in desperate need of medication,” Dr. Levine said. “Many physicians treat these patients every day and understand the impact this medication could have on their treatment. Once these physicians register and complete the required continuing education, they can be approved to participate in the program.” http://www.health.pa.gov/
After completing a mandatory four-hour training program available through two DOH providers, The Answer Page Inc. and Extra Step Assurance LLC, they can apply to the state for approval to certify patients who would benefit from its use. Patients would then register with the state and obtain an ID card allowing them to go to a dispensary for the drug.
This is one of the final steps necessary to get the program up and running by 2018. On April 17, 2016, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed The Medical Marijuana Act into law, making Pennsylvania one of 44 states and Washington, D.C., that have passed marijuana legalization law. It became effective 30 days later May 17, 2016.
Act 16 offers Pennsylvania residents who are under the care of a physician and suffer from serious medical conditions medical marijuana. It establishes a program for the its use to be administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The Act outlines the rules for growing facilities; dispensaries; the types or forms manufactured; medical conditions that the medicine can be prescribed for, as well as rules for doctors and patients to participate in the program.
Medical Marijuana will not be hallucinogenic and cannot be smoked. The manufactured products will come in the form of oils, lotions, tinctures and other medical delivery methods and can be used for 17 predetermined serious medical conditions such as: Autism, Cancer, Epilepsy, HIV, Crohn’s Disease, Glaucoma, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Neuropathies, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Severe chronic or intractable pain.
So here we are in 2017 with new laws governing marijuana. But marijuana sounds like an old story. In the ’60s hippies made a cult out of it; getting high is something high school kids referred to for decades calling it pot, weed, reefers, etc. It is a well-known illegal recreational drug.
It has a long history of human use dating back to ancient cultures, recorded in Asia around 500 BC. Marijuana was then known as hemp or cannabis. Cannabis cultivation in America dates to colonial times where in the 1600s, the colonies of Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts required farmers to grow it to help with the Revolutionary War effort. Hemp fiber was used to make clothing, paper, sails and rope, and its seeds were used as food. George Washington grew it at Mt. Vernon. By the 1800s, cannabis extract from leaves, stems, seeds and buds were carried in every doctor’s black bag and sold in pharmacies and doctor’s offices to treat stomach problems and other ailments.
Scientists later discovered THC was the source of marijuana’s medicinal properties. The human body has receptor sites that are activated by this psychoactive compound and are responsible for its mind-altering effects, and interacts with areas of the brain that lessen nausea and promote hunger. The mystique was reduced to scientific fact. The cat was out of the bag and later the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would have approved two drugs with THC prescribed in pill form (Marinol and Syndros) to treat nausea caused by cancer, chemotherapy and loss of appetite in AIDs patients.
In the early 1900s the Mexican Revolution brought Mexicans to the United States, introducing recreational cannabis leaf smoking to American culture. Followed by the social unrest of the Great Depression, competition for work led to resentment of Mexican immigrants and there was a public outcry against the “evil weed”. The Prohibition Era was a ripe time for it to be outlawed by 29 states by 1931.
The criminalization had begun, the name was changed to marijuana by joining the most popular female and male Mexican names Mary and Juan. The federal government passed the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 imposing an excise tax on the sale, possession or transfer of all hemp products, effectively criminalizing all but industrial uses of the plant.
A confluence of events led to this. In 1930, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was created naming Harry J. Anslinger director. Wanting to make his mark and grow the new agency he latched onto criminalizing marijuana adding it to opiates and cocaine.
He promoted negative stories drawing from racism and violence. He promoted this in newspaper stories nationwide with help from William Randolf Hearst, owner of a huge chain of newspapers. Hearst was invested in the timber industry for news paper and didn’t want hemp as competition. Writing sensational yellow journalism stories about Mexicans and their devil marijuana weed sold newspapers, making him rich.
Defenders of marijuana claim Anslinger joined by the Dupont Chemical Company and various pharmaceutical companies believe the plan was to outlaw the competition. They reason Dupont with a patent for nylon and the pharmaceutical companies unable to standardize cannabis dosages, and people able to grow their own medicine hence no need to buy it had motives of greed.
Anslinger with a scrapbook filled with sensational Hearst papers along with his plan testified before Congress. The American Medical Association’s counsel testified that The Bureau of Narcotics had misrepresented AMA statements to favor the anti-marijuana view and referring to the plant in the bill as marijuana was a derogatory term meaning Mexicans smoking drugs rather than calling it hemp/ cannabis. They did not win their argument and the federal law was passed.
Industrial hemp was grown in the United States up to and during World War II when the Department of Agriculture launched the “Hemp for Victory” program, giving hemp seed to farmers to grow hemp fields for marine cordage, parachutes, and other military necessities for the war effort. Draft deferments were given to those who stayed home to farm the fields.
In 1970 President Nixon repealed the Marijuana Tax Act during The War on Drugs. The plant became listed with heroin, LSD, and ecstasy with no medical uses and a high potential for abuse.
Then recognizing the medical value of Marijuana, The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 made California the first state to legalize the plant for severe or chronic illnesses. However, even now with 44 states legalizing it Cannabis is still illegal under U.S. federal law, and is the subject of ongoing controversy.
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Information is available on the Department of Health website www.health.pa.gov.
Sources for this article include the following:
Pennsylvania Department of Health website at www.health.pa.gov.
The Mysterious History Of ‘Marijuana’-NPR http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/14/201981025/
Marijuana Timeline | Busted – America’s War on Marijuana – PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/etc/cron.html
History Channel http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-marijuana
