Pa. lawmakers target oversight gaps for medical marijuana doctors

The question of who gets to be a medical marijuana doctor in Pennsylvania is facing new scrutiny from state lawmakers following a Spotlight PA investigation.

Citing that investigation, two Republican lawmakers say they plan to introduce legislation that would give the state Department of Health greater oversight when deciding which doctors can approve patients for a medical marijuana card.

The measure is intended “to protect the health and safety of the patients enrolled in the program,” wrote state Reps. Tim Twardzik and JoAnne Stehr, who are both from Schuylkill County, in a co-sponsorship memo to colleagues.

A Spotlight PA investigation published Aug. 26 found that the Pennsylvania Department of Health has rarely blocked practitioners from joining the state’s medical marijuana program based on past discipline. The story focused on the rare case of a denied doctor whose appeal reached a hearing. A state examiner recommended the department allow him to return to the program, but the doctor was awaiting a decision from the state’s health secretary as of July.

The case highlighted an under-the-radar debate over who gets to certify patients to use medical marijuana and whether past misbehavior should bar people from the program indefinitely. Spotlight PA found that several other active physicians in the program — some of whom have been among the top doctors for the number of certifications issued — also have past disciplinary history.

Twardzik and Stehr cited the investigation in their Aug. 27 memo, saying the article “highlighted some of the deficiencies in the state’s Medical Marijuana Act.”

“Our bill will strengthen the program and ensure that the Department continues to provide needed oversight of the medical marijuana program,” they later added.

In Pennsylvania, patients need a physician’s approval to legally purchase cannabis from dispensaries. Records released by the department show about 1,300 physicians issued at least one patient certification in 2022.

While the health department isn’t the state agency that decides whether doctors have a medical license, it does have the power to determine who enters the medical marijuana practitioner registry.

The medical marijuana law does not detail how to treat applications from previously disciplined physicians once their medical licenses are restored — a gap the lawmakers alluded to in their memo.

The department “lacks clear statutory authority to place conditions on a physician for inclusion in the registry,” and “there is a lack of clear statutory authority regarding when the Department may deny an application for inclusion in the registry for prior conduct,” Twardzik and Stehr said in their memo.

Department regulations provide more detail on the issue than the medical marijuana law. The regulations say physicians may be denied if they are or have been the subject of professional disciplinary action. But those regulations don’t differentiate between the types of violations that led to the discipline or consider the length of time since they occurred.

The planned bill has not been introduced as of Aug. 28. It could meet resistance or a lack of interest from other lawmakers.

“If you’re asking me to name the biggest threat to the health of our medical marijuana patients, I’m not going to say underqualified doctors,” state Rep. Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny), chair of the House Health Committee, said in a statement.

He described other issues as more important, saying he’s “far more concerned about making sure that all cannabis products in Pennsylvania are lab tested and safe for consumption.”

In 2016, former Democratic Governor Tom Wolf signed a medical cannabis bill into law, and many people have become patients since then. There were about 441,000 active certifications for patients as of May, according to health department data.

Many other states have more options to legally use cannabis beyond medical programs. Except for West Virginia, all of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states have legalized recreational cannabis for adults 21 and over. An adult-use cannabis proposal from Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro failed to gain enough support to be included as part of this year’s state budget.

Patrick Nightingale, a medical marijuana patient and advocate, called Twardzik and Stehr’s proposal a “fairly common sense” idea.

“It sounds like they want to clarify the rules of the game, if you will,” Nightingale, an attorney and executive director of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told Spotlight PA. “And that sounds to me like it would bring consistency across the board.”

He told Spotlight PA his biggest concern is ensuring patients have access to the medical program, and he doesn’t think the lawmakers’ proposal would interfere with that. He said the program would benefit from clear guidelines.

“Physicians would be able to say, ‘OK, I’m being held to the same standard as everybody else. I understand why I’m not eligible at this time,’” Nightingale said.

90.5 WESA partners with Spotlight PA, a collaborative, reader-funded newsroom producing accountability journalism for all of Pennsylvania. More at spotlightpa.org.