HARRISBURG – A state lawmaker and advocates who fought to get medical marijuana legalized in Pennsylvania say a rejected applicant for a dispensary and grower licenses should drop its effort to get the state’s program halted.
In a lawsuit filed in Commonwealth Court, Keystone ReLeaf asked the court to halt the rollout of the medical marijuana program over concerns about the lack of transparency in how the permits were awarded.
State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, one of the two main sponsors of the medical marijuana legislation, said he understands that applicants who didn’t get permits may want to challenge the decision. The move to sue wasn’t particularly surprising either, he said.
“People put a lot of effort into applying,” he said. “We expected people to appeal.”
But seeking to stop the rollout of the whole medical marijuana program is over the top, Leach said.
Delaying the rollout will hurt the very patients the program was created to help, he said.
On top of that, states where medical marijuana has been legalized have seen a 25 percent decrease in opioid deaths. In a state with 2,000 overdose deaths a year, that means 500 lives are literally at stake for every year the rollout is delayed, Leach said.
Leach sent a letter to an attorney representing Keystone ReLeaf asking that the company abandon its request to halt the program.
On Tuesday, after hearing no response, Leach organized a press conference with advocates for medical marijuana at the Capitol.
For the mothers of patients who led the lobbying to get medical marijuana legalized in Pennsylvania, the threat of delay is painful, said Cara Salemme of Campaign for Compassion.
Members of Campaign for Compassion and their children were the public face of the crusade for medical marijuana in Pennsylvania before the state legalized it last year.
The state’s medical marijuana program will provide the drug to people with 17 medical conditions including epilepsy, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer and glaucoma.
“To delay the program by one minute is selfish,” Salemme said. “Especially when it’s for personal gain.”
She said her group gets emails and other messages every day from people seeking access to medical marijuana for loved ones.
Every message ends the same way, she said, with the question: “Can you help?”
Salemme noted that applicants for permits will get another chance when the state releases another round of permits.
“We don’t have the luxury of second chances,” she said.
Seth Tipton, a Bethlehem attorney representing Keystone ReLeaf, to whom Leach addressed his letter, didn’t respond to a Wednesday email seeking a response to the comments by Leach and the advocates.
It’s not the only legal challenge, though it’s the only one that seeks to completely halt the program, said April Hutcheson, a state Department of Health spokeswoman.
In a separate case, a rejected applicant has sued, arguing that they should have been awarded the license given to another applicant in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Each dispensary operator can open three dispensaries.
The state received 462 applications from would-be grower/processors or dispsenary operators.
In addition to the lawsuits, 148 of the rejected applicants have filed administrative appeals.
Hutcheson said that she was unable to immediately provide a list of which rejected applicants have filed appeals.
Hutcheson said that despite the appeals, the Department of Health still aims to get the program up and running next year.
The department has not determined when the next round of permits will be awarded, she said.
Companies rejected in the first round would have to reapply in the second round, Hutcheson said.
But how many of the permits are available could depend on the outcome of the 148 appeals, said Steve Hoenstine, a spokesman for Leach.
The law creating the state’s medical marijuana program capped the number of growers and processors at 25 and the number of dispensary operators at 52.
With the number capped, any of the 148 companies appealing their rejection are successful, their permits would likely reduce the number available in the second round, Hoenstine said.
credit:tribdem.com
