Medical marijuana is a treatment that uses the marijuana plant and other chemicals in it to treat diseases or conditions. This medical practice is very important to people who deal with anxiety, nausea, chronic pain, etc. As the list of patients grows, the state is now experiencing a shortage. The shortage has been going on for two months, which has been difficult to treat a number of patients. It’s been especially hard to get medical marijuana in the King of Prussia and Philadelphia area.
Many patients and advocates blame state regulators for not watching out for the rising demand for medical marijuana and how many growers would be needed. People would never expect places like Rite Aid and CVS to say that your medicine is three weeks out.
There are also not enough growers producing marijuana in the state of Pennsylvania. The number has stayed stagnant since medical marijuana was legalized due to the fact that western Pennsylvania firms did not ship a single ounce of cannabis.
One of the most active marijuana growing facilities, Agrimed, was also not able to get their permit renewed for growing again. While state regulators are figuring out whether to reissue.
Susan M. Fitzgerald, a nurse in student health services, talked about her opinions on medical marijuana and how the shortage could affect people.
She says that despite the numerous studies that have been conducted, there is little evidence that medical marijuana can directly benefit people with a variety of health problems, even if it’s been approved in the state of Pennsylvania.
She also believes that patients who could be suddenly cut off from the medication, if not careful, could become addicted and could require more of the drug to receive the same effect that the medication gave them.
“Smoking marijuana is not without risk and potential health problems,” Susan M. Fitzgerald said.
With the growing number of patients nearly up to 202,500 registered patients. It seems like the medical marijuana business doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Even though many dispensers seem to be struggling with getting supply. The supply they would order would be dry leaf forms of marijuana which are becoming a struggle for more companies and plants to grow. Marijuana has a difficulty to be delivered to the dispensaries because it’s still not legal for marijuana to be shipped in a lot of places in the Pennsylvania area.
Some of the Cabrini students have voiced their opinions on the shortage of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania.
Andrew Swire, a junior exercise science major, said that he felt that medical marijuana should be legal in more areas in Pennsylvania to ship so that dispensers are able to give more medication to their patients.
“My cousin uses medical marijuana for her anxiety and I would hate to see that taken away,” Andrew Swire said.
Another student Aiyanna Martenez, sophomore writing major, voiced her concerns as well.
“I don’t understand why the government doesn’t take medical marijuana seriously and doesn’t make it legal all over the state,” Martenez said.
Martenez also talks about how some of her family is even under the program and how she grows worried that they could be cut off at some point if this continues. It’s unclear to see weather Medical marijuana important to a lot of people but as long as the drought keeps going on, it’s unclear to know how long people will be able to use the program.
