Medical Marijuana Stalled for Now

GOP leadership won't bring bill to Pa. House floor.

The Patriot-News reports that the Pennsylvania House’s Republican leadership won’t bring a medical marijuana bill to the floor this fall.

Steve Miskin, (House Majority Leader Mike) Turzai’s press secretary, said Monday that shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who’s been following the debate in Harrisburg.

The Senate, Miskin noted, took nearly a year to develop its bill.

It would be unrealistic “and irresponsible (for House members new to the issue) to just rubber-stamp a bill that creates an entire new bureaucracy” in less than two weeks, Miskin said.

One reason to keep the bill away from a vote? Gov. Tom Corbett favors a more limited approach than the already-truncated medical marijuana regime allowed under the Senate bill. House GOP leaders aren’t interested in dropping an electoral hot potato in his lap before the election, observers say.