Harrisbrug, PA – Acting Health Secretary and Physician General Dr. Rachel Levine today announced that regulations for medical marijuana clinical research programs will be published in the March 17 edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
“Research is essential to ensure patients with serious medical conditions can get the most benefit from medical marijuana,” Dr. Levine said. “These regulations outline how accredited medical schools with acute care hospitals will work with clinical registrants to conduct clinical research. Pennsylvania is the first and only state in the nation to institute a program like this and the research may shed new light on the benefits of medical marijuana.”
The Clinical Registrants and Academic Clinical Research Centers Temporary Regulations outline the process for an accredited medical school with an acute care hospital to become an approved Academic Clinical Research Center; the application process for prospective clinical registrants; how research studies are reviewed and approved; and how Clinical Registrants may interact with the commercial medical marijuana market.
More than 24,000 patients have registered to participate in the medical marijuana program, with more than 8,400 certified by a physician and 7,000 who have received their identification cards. Nearly 5,000 patients have already received medical marijuana at a dispensary.
Physicians continue to register to participate in the program. To date, 844 have registered and of those, 433 have competed the training to become certified practitioners.
The Medical Marijuana Program was signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf on April 17, 2016. Since that time, the department has:
- Completed the Safe Harbor temporary guidelines and Safe Harbor Letter application process, as well as approved more than 340 applications;
- Completed temporary regulations for growers/processors, dispensaries, physicians, patients, and laboratories, all which have been published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin;
- Issued permits to grower/processors and dispensaries;
- Developed the Medical Marijuana Physician Workgroup;
- Convened the Medical Marijuana Advisory Board;
- Approved five training providers for physician continuing-education;
- Approved three laboratories to test medication before it is delivered to patients;
- Launched registries for patients and caregivers, as well as physicians;
- Registered more than 24,000 patients for the program;
- Approved 13 dispensaries and 12 grower/processers to begin operations; and
- Continued to work with permittees to ensure they will be operational.
The Medical Marijuana Program offers medical marijuana to patients who are residents of Pennsylvania and under a practitioner’s care for the treatment of a serious medical condition as defined by the Medical Marijuana Law.
Questions about the Medical Marijuana Program can be emailed to RA-DHMedMarijuana@pa.gov. Information is also available at www.medicalmarijuana.pa.gov .
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April Hutcheson, Health, 717-787-1783
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