Pennsylvania medical cannabis businesses will be allowed to sell flower

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Patients in Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program should be able to obtain the drug in dry leaf or flower form for vaporization by sometime this summer, Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration announced Monday.

The move should help boost MMJ sales by giving patients a wider choice of potentially cheaper products. It also could help MMJ companies by lowering certain production costs.

Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said she was accepting that and other recommendations made recently by an advisory panel, including the addition of four medical conditions to the list of those qualified to use MMJ.

The latter move also is likely to give MMJ sales a shot in the arm.

State law prevents dispensaries from selling marijuana that’s designed to be smoked, but Levine said the option of dry leaf or flower form could make the drug cheaper to produce and less expensive for patients.

The list of qualifying conditions is being expanded to include use in cancer remission therapy and opioid-addiction therapy, or for neurodegenerative and spastic movement disorders.

The list had already included AIDS, autism, cancer, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, Crohn’s disease and other conditions.

Officials say the program, under which the drug became available to patients in February, has been expanding quickly. It now encompasses 30,400 registered patients and 11,900 patients with ID cards who have obtained medical marijuana at a dispensary.

Two grower-processors are currently providing medical marijuana to nine operating dispensaries, with six more grower-processors and eight more dispensaries poised to come online in the near future.

– Associated Press