Efforts to pass a medical marijuana bill in Pennsylvania have received a boost with the election of a new governor.
But how can marijuana advocates sway skeptical House members who sat on the legislation last year?
Patrick Nightingale of the Pittsburgh office of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws talks about his work as part of a years-long public education program on marijuana decriminalization.
Nightingale says that some of the best advocates of medical marijuana are the parents of children suffering from illnesses whose symptoms can be relieved by the drug, including epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and others. A number of state legislators have become advocates themselves after meeting with individuals who stand to benefit from medical cannabis.
“We’re only now just scratching the surface of the true potential benefits of this amazing plant,” Nightingale says.
In an attempt to speak to the concerns of those who may be wary of legalization, Nightingale explains, the pro-legalization House bill, PA SB 3, is very specific about its regulations. It would form an advisory board, for instance, and it contains rigid guidelines for the growth, distribution, and sale of medical marijuana.
State action on medical cannabis is important because marijuana prohibition reform has occurred primarily on the state level. At the federal level, Nightingale explains, very little change has occurred on the legalization front. Meanwhile 23 states currently allow marijuana use for medicinal purposes, he says.
“This seems to be one of those things where the states are going to be acting as the incubators of democracy, and the states are going to have to take the lead and let the federal government catch up.”
Unlike other pharmaceuticals, marijuana is a nontoxic plant, making it substantially safer than most other drugs on the market, Nightingale suggests.
But people have difficulty getting past the common conception that marijuana is a serious drug with dangerous implications; they have a “Reefer Madness” mentality, Nightingale says, alluding to the 1936 film whose melodramatic depiction of marijuana indelibly shaped the public imagination on cannabis use.
