Pennsylvania’s medical program just got flower and one dispensary was trying to celebrate with dollar grams. The state’s health department, however, wasn’t having it.

Who wouldn’t want to buy a dollar gram? That’s right, precisely no one. But when one Pennsylvania dispensary started selling them as part of a celebration of their first sales of “flower,” which was recently legalized under the state’s medical cannabis program, the Pennsylvania Department of Health was quick to cry foul.

To rally support for his recreational marijuana bill, a Pennsylvania lawmaker has launched an online petition.

State Rep. Jake Wheatley of Pennsylvania has launched an online petition in support of his bill to legalize recreational marijuana in the state. Wheatley announced his intention to sponsor the bill last month and said that he plans to introduce the measure in the state general assembly soon.

Wheatley said in a press release on Tuesday that House Bill 2600, as the measure is known, will provide benefits to the state that outweigh the risks.

Pennsylvania's medical marijuana program may be coming along just fine, but Governor Tom Wolf (D) still doesn't think the Keystone State is ready for recreational cannabis, writes Calvin Hughes.

When a Pittsburgh radio station recently asked Governor Wolf if he supported the legalization of recreational marijuana, his response was tepid at best.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office will no longer charge cases related to buying small amounts of cannabis for personal consumption, according to a memo circulated internally Monday and obtained exclusively by NBC10.

Nearly 300 such cases have already been declined by the office since January, according to the memo.

Thom Shannon was the first in line. The medical marijuana dispensary on Old York Road in Abington wouldn’t open its doors for nine more hours. But Shannon, 43, already had been waiting 20 years.

“I was a little premature, but this day is kinda historic,” said Shannon, a burly former executive chef. “I thought this day would never come.”

The Jefferson Accelerator Zone, a “command central’ for entrepreneurial innovation at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, is sponsoring a “Shark Tank”-style competition for weed and hemp start-ups.

The contest, the first ever of its kind to be sponsored by a university, will award substantial prizes and legal services to one winner and two runners-up. Applications are open to members of the Jefferson community as well as non-affiliated parties.

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Pennsylvania are bracing for a surge in new customers when vaporizable “flower” — the most popular and recognizable form of cannabis — goes on sale on Wednesday, Aug. 1.

“We’re expecting 300 to 400 patients at our Abington store the first day,” said Chris Visco, co-founder of TerraVida Holistic Centers. “People will likely be in line at 8 a.m. We’re hiring an extra security guard and an extra valet parking person. This is a game-changer.”

Pennsylvania's elected fiscal watchdog says legalizing and taxing the sale and use of marijuana at 35 percent could add more than a half-billion dollars to state coffers.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale released an analysis Thursday that said there are about 800,000 regular users of the drug in the state.

DePasquale, a Democrat, says the retail market could be about $1.7 billion, based on studies in other states that indicate adult users typically spend about $2,100 a year on marijuana.

ennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in 2016. Possession or sale of the drug for other purposes remains a crime, although Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and several other Pennsylvania cities have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The programs come as more states are legalizing medicinal cannabis.

Thomas Jefferson University is launching the first university-based, graduate-level certificate programs in medical marijuana education, school officials announced on Thursday.

Studies will begin in the fall for certificates in Cannabis Medicine and Cannabinoid Pharmacology at the Lambert Center for the Study of Medicinal Cannabis and Hemp. The programs are the first of its kind.

A third certificate program – for Cannabinoid Chemistry and Toxicology – will kick off in 2019.

The programs come as more and more states legalize medicinal and – in some cases – recreational marijuana. Medical marijuana is now available in 30 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Legislation designed to get a research provision of Pennsylvania's medical marijuana law back on track is headed to the governor's desk.

Both chambers voted Friday for a bill that was drafted in response to a Commonwealth Court judge's decision last month to halt Health Department regulations for licenses issued to growers and dispensaries that partner with state medical schools.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's office says he'll sign it.

Supporters say the research component of the medical marijuana law will pay dividends in years to come, as the businesses and medical schools work to learn more about how the drug helps patients and develop products and applications.