Legislation would increase patient choice and improve health care options.

Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania
3915 Union Deposit Road #223
Harrisburg, PA 17109
www.lppa.org
 
For Immediate Release: May 14, 2010
 
Contact: Doug Leard (Media Relations) at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or
Michael Robertson (Chair) at 1-800-R-RIGHTS / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
Harrisburg, PA -  The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania (LPPa) today announced their support for legislation that permits

medical marijuana use in Pennsylvania.
 
State Senator Daylin Leach (D-Delaware/Montgomery) introduced legislation on May 4th.  If passed, Pennsylvania would join fourteen other states and the District of Columbia in offering doctor-supervised marijuana programs to residents with debilitating medical conditions.
 
LPPa candidate for Lt. Governor, Kat Valleley asked, "If you or a loved one were deathly ill and marijuana might be the difference between life and death, relief and pain, or recovery and illness, then why shouldn't it be a medical treatment option?”

Valleley added, “Perhaps, in time, we will address the more fundamental issue – shouldn’t I have the right to determine what I ingest into my own body?”

Under Leach's bill, Pennsylvania physicians could prescribe medicinal marijuana to eligible patients.  Recent studies indicate that marijuana counters the side effects of chemotherapy, controls pain and relieves symptoms of glaucoma and other chronic conditions.
 
The bill mirrors H.B. 1393, The Compassionate Use Act, introduced by Rep. Mark Cohen last year. That bill is currently under deliberation by the House Health and Human Services Committee.
 
LPPa Gubernatorial candidate Marakay Rogers observed that, "Civilized people regard the intentional withholding of available medicine from prisoners of war as torture. Pennsylvania not only denies marijuana as a treatment option, but it has the power to imprison patients and suppliers for acts of saving lives and reducing human suffering.  Isn't it time for Pennsylvania to regard its sick, its ill and its healers at least as highly as prisoners of war?"

The Libertarian Party is the third largest political party in Pennsylvania and the United States. More than 200,000 people across the country are registered Libertarians, and Libertarians serve in hundreds of elected offices. Please visit www.LP.org or www.LPPA.org for more information.