Roughly eight and a half years after Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana, nearly a million people have registered as medical marijuana patients.
According to recent state data, there are 942,231 patients and caregivers registered in the state (around 5,000 being caregivers). This is slightly over 7% of the state’s total population of around 13 million according to recent census data. Only Maine and Oklahoma have a highest percentage of medical marijuana patients per capita.
Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in April 2016, when Governor Tom Wolf signed the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Act into law. The program officially launched in 2018, with dispensaries opening to patients in February of that year. The law allows those with a qualifying medical marijuana condition and a recommendation from a licensed physician to join the program.
Qualifying conditions include:
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis;
- Anxiety disorders;
- Autism;
- Cancer, including remission therapy;
- Chronic Hepatitis C;
- Crohn’s disease;
- Damage to the nervous tissue of the central nervous system (brain-spinal cord) with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity, and other associated neuropathies;
- Dyskinetic and spastic movement disorders;
- Epilepsy;
- Glaucoma;
- HIV / AIDS;
- Huntington’s disease;
- Inflammatory bowel disease;
- Intractable seizures;
- Multiple sclerosis;
- Neurodegenerative diseases;
- Neuropathies;
- Opioid use disorder for which conventional therapeutic interventions are contraindicated or ineffective, or for which adjunctive therapy is indicated in combination with primary therapeutic interventions;
- Parkinson’s disease;
- Post-traumatic stress disorder;
- Severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic or intractable pain;
- Sickle cell anemia;
- Terminal illness; and
- Tourette syndrome.
According to polling released last month by The Tarrance Group, 58% of voters in Pennsylvania support legalizing recreational marijuana, with 79% in support of medical marijuana. The poll also found that 70% of voters in Pennsylvania support federal legislation enabling marijuana banking.
According to an analysis released in July, if marijuana is legalized in Pennsylvania it will create over 30,000 new jobs, with the total market generating over $2 billion in annual sales.
