Story by Ed Mahon from Spotlight PA

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HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Department of Health would have the authority to impose new limits on doctors seeking to practice under the state’s medical marijuana program, under legislation stemming from a Spotlight PA investigation.

Earlier this month, a group of Republican lawmakers in the state House of Representatives introduced an invoice it would give regulators the power to impose a series of conditions on individual doctors who want to certify medical marijuana patients. In Pennsylvania, patients need a doctor’s approval to obtain a medical marijuana card and purchase cannabis at dispensaries.

Under the bill, the department could place a physician on probation and limit the number of patient certificates the physician can issue during a specific period of time determined by the department. The Department 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 Augustwhich found that the Department of Health has rarely blocked practitioners from joining the state’s medical marijuana program based on prior disciplines. That includes a doctor who was sentenced to federal prison in the early 2000s after pleading guilty to charges related to drug distribution.

The survey also found a wide disparity in how often some doctors approve patients for medical marijuana cards.

Of the approximately 1,300 doctors who issued at least one medical marijuana certification in 2022, most issued fewer than 100, according to department records. But some doctors issued several thousand that year, and three issued more than 11,000.

The bill’s lead sponsor, state Rep. Tim Twardzik (R., Schuylkill), cited Spotlight PA’s investigation: say it “revealed gaps in the medical marijuana law,” particularly related to the department’s “limited authority to impose conditions or deny applications based on a physician’s prior conduct.”

The legislation would also prohibit doctors from joining the program as practitioners if they have been convicted of a crime under a national drug law over the previous five years.

The bill leaves some details of oversight up to the department, such as knowing which doctors deserve closer scrutiny. To move forward in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, 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 on which bills to consider — previously told Spotlight PA that there were problems more important to the health of medical marijuana patients than “underqualified doctors.” »

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

“It’s interesting in this business,” he told Spotlight PA, adding that he was told, “‘When you have an idea for a bill, it takes about six years to get to the line arrival.'”

Still, he added, from time to time, lawmakers discover significant problems that they immediately address.

The state’s medical marijuana law currently gives the department authority 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 doctors proposed by Twardzik.

Earlier this year, a lawyer for the department described the limits of its oversight power, as Spotlight previously reported. In an administrative case, the lawyer wrote that the state’s medical marijuana law and regulations do not give the Bureau of Medical Marijuana “the same investigative resources or authority to require additional requirements to prove compliance” that other agencies, including a licensing board, hold. .

A Department of Health spokesperson told Spotlight PA 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 she is concerned that the proposed power to cap the number of medical certifications could limit patient access.

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

Jeff Hanley, executive director of the Commonwealth Prevention Alliancea nonprofit focused on substance use issues, said the article highlighted the critical need for a “comprehensive review” of Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program. He suggested examining a number of issues that had been is the subject of previous Spotlight PA investigationsincluding a list of patient eligibility requirements, advertising rules, and practices of third-party companies that connect doctors and patients.

William Stauffer, a prominent recovery advocate in Pennsylvania, weighed equallysaying he hopes “this story is a wake-up call to state government and beyond.”

The story shows “a system in which the harms associated with cannabis are relegated to the background or perhaps as 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 state’s secretary of health has received recommendations for expanding this list include podiatrists and nurse practitioners. Doctors must apply and complete a four-hour training course to be included on the department’s register of approved doctors.

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