Meanwhile, close to half of the registered doctors in the state are in the Philadelphia area.

It’s been almost one year since Pennsylvania opened its medical marijuana patient registry, allowing residents to apply for the right to legally obtain medical marijuana for a wide variety of conditions, and we’ve got some numbers from the program’s first year from Pennsylvania’s Department of Health.

According to Nate Wardle, press secretary for the Department of Health in Harrisburg, more than 80,000 patients have registered for the medical marijuana program since the registry launched in October 2017. Of those 80,000 patients, the state has approved nearly 51,000 to receive medical marijuana through dispensaries.

Pennsylvania may decriminalize marijuana to clear up the state’s clogged court system.

A bill that would decriminalize marijuana in Pennsylvania will move forward after receiving the approval of a key legislative committee on Tuesday. The House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the measure, House Bill 928, by a margin of 14-9. The bill must be approved by the full House and the state Senate and be signed by Gov. Tom Wolf to become law. The governor has said he will sign the legislation if it reaches his desk.

Local state representatives are wary of a recently introduced proposal that would legalize cannabis for adult recreational use in Pennsylvania.

“I don’t think this is the time to be legalizing more drugs,” state Rep. Ryan Warner said, adding that lawmakers did have the option to study the impact of recreational marijuana in states where it has been legalized.

Recreational cannabis is legal in nine states and the District of Columbia, and medical cannabis is legal in 31 states and the District of Columbia.

Pennsylvania is on a path to potentially legalizing recreational marijuana after a Democratic state representative introduced a bill Monday permitting adults to possess, use and grow the plant.

Introduced by Rep. Jake Wheatley, House Bill 2600 would add Pennsylvania to the list of nine states and counting to legalize recreational marijuana in spite of federal prohibition while simultaneously reducing the strain on the commonwealth’s prison system.

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.