New limits, oversight of Pa.’s medical marijuana doctors proposed in response to Spotlight PA investigation

Story by Ed Mahon of Spotlight PA

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HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Department of Health would have the authority to impose new restrictions on doctors who want to practice in the state’s medical marijuana program, under legislation prompted by a Spotlight PA investigation.

Earlier this month, a group of Republican lawmakers introduced the House of Representatives an account that would give regulators the power to impose a range of conditions on individual doctors seeking to certify medical marijuana patients. In Pennsylvania, patients need a doctor’s permission to obtain a medical marijuana card and purchase cannabis from dispensaries.

Under the bill, the department would be able to place a physician on probation and limit the number of patient certifications the physician may issue during a specified period of time, as determined by the department. The Ministry of Health could also impose reporting requirements and require that the doctor be supervised by another doctor.

The action follows a Spotlight PA investigation, published in Augustshowing that the health department has rarely blocked practitioners from participating in the state’s medical marijuana program based on past discipline. That includes a doctor who received a federal prison sentence in the early 2000s after pleading guilty to drug distribution charges.

The study also found that there are wide variations in the frequency with which some doctors approve patients for medical marijuana cards.

Of the roughly 1,300 physicians who issued at least one medical marijuana certification in 2022, most issued fewer than 100, department data show. But some physicians issued several thousand that year, and three issued more than 11,000.

The bill’s lead sponsor, state Rep. Tim Twardzik (R., Schuylkill), quoted Spotlight PA’s research: saying it “reveals deficiencies in the Medical Marijuana Act,” specifically regarding the department’s “limited authority to impose conditions or deny applications based on a physician’s prior conduct.”

The legislation would also prohibit physicians from participating in the program as physicians if they have been convicted of a felony a state drug law within the past five years.

The bill leaves some details of oversight up to the department, such as which doctors deserve additional scrutiny. To move forward in the Democratic-controlled state House, the bill would need to be considered by the Health Committee. State Rep. Kathy Rapp (R., Warren), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, is the panel’s minority chair.

However, State Rep. Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny) — who as committee chairman makes decisions about which bills are considered — previously told Spotlight PA that there are more important issues for the health of medical marijuana patients than “underqualified doctors.” ”

In an interview in August, Twardzik acknowledged the difficult road ahead for this, or any legislation, in Harrisburg.

“It’s interesting in this job,” he told Spotlight PA, adding that he was told: “If you have an idea for a bill, it takes about six years to get to the finish line.”

Still, he says lawmakers occasionally encounter important issues that they resolve immediately.

The state’s medical marijuana law currently gives the department the power to decide which doctors can certify patients, and it is responsible for determining whether each doctor is qualified. But the law does not specifically address whether the department can impose the types of additional restrictions and oversight on certain physicians that Twardzik is proposing.

Earlier this year, a lawyer for the department described the limits of his oversight authority. as Spotlight previously reported. In an administrative case, the attorney wrote that medical marijuana laws and regulations do not give the Bureau of Medical Marijuana “the same investigative resources or authority to impose additional requirements to prove compliance” that other agencies, including a licensing board, handle. .

A spokesperson for the Department of Health told Spotlight PA that the agency does not comment on pending legislation.

Twardzik’s proposal could face resistance from the state’s cannabis industry. Meredith Buettner Schneider, executive director of the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition, told Spotlight PA that she is concerned that the proposed authority to limit the number of physician certifications could limit patient access.

Others have called for changes in response to Spotlight PA’s August investigation.

Jeff Hanley, executive director of the Commonwealth Prevention Alliancea nonprofit organization that focuses on substance use issues, said the story highlighted the critical need for “a comprehensive review” of Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program. He suggested looking into some of the issues that have been raised subject of previous Spotlight PA investigationsincluding the list of qualifying conditions for patients, advertising rules, and practices of third party companies that connect physicians and patients.

William Stauffer, a leading recovery advocate in Pennsylvania, also weighs inand says he hopes the “story is a wake-up call for state government and beyond.”

The story depicts “a system in which the harms associated with cannabis are relegated to an afterthought or perhaps a barrier to getting cannabis into the hands of as many people as possible,” Stauffer wrote.

Currently, only licensed physicians and doctors of osteopathic medicine can approve patients for a medical marijuana card in Pennsylvania, although the Secretary of Health has received recommendations to expand that list including podiatrists and nurses. Doctors must apply and complete a four-hour training course to be included in the department’s register of approved doctors.

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