Shortly after Governor Tom Wolf announced his support for legalizing recreational marijuana in the state, Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced a bill that is being hailed by cannabis advocates as the “gold standard” for weed legalization.

Democratic Senators Daylin Leach and Sharif Street filed the legislation that covers everything from social equity provisions to marijuana delivery services.

Less than a month after Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf called on state lawmakers to draft a bill to legalize recreational cannabis, Senators Sharif Street and Daylin Leach have delivered. And what the two Democrat lawmakers are proposing with SB350 could be the most comprehensively progressive marijuana legalization bill to date. The bill includes provisions for home grow, total expungement of prior cannabis-related convictions and delivery services. It also opens the door to the industry, making it easy for individual and small-scale growers and retailers to open businesses and placing checks on large out-of-state corporations.

The employees of a Pennsylvania medical marijuana company have signed a labor contract with their employer, making them the first cannabis workers in the state to unionize. The three-year agreement between employees and management of Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Solutions was recently ratified, making about 30 production and laboratory operations workers in a Scranton manufacturing facility members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 Keystone State.

If Pennsylvania does legalize recreational cannabis, a union-friendly Democrat from the Philadelphia suburbs wants to give consumers a one-stop shopping experience.

On Wednesday, Rep. David Delloso, D-Delaware, rolled out a plan that would not only legalize recreational marijuana for people aged 21 and older, it would also allow cannabis to be sold through Pennsylvania’s more than 600 state-owned liquor stores.

Medical marijuana is the only medicine that helps Dalton Hunsberger with seizures, nausea and anxiety.

But for two months, it’s been very difficult to find the medicine that treats the 21-year-old Perkasie man’s epilepsy and other symptoms. “When the dispensaries get it in, it’s gone within a couple of hours,” said Dalton’s mother, Charis Hunsberger.

Pennsylvania is in the grip of a medical marijuana drought, according to multiple dispensary owners from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

Tom Wolf, the Governor of Pennsylvania, now numbers himself among Pennsylvanians who stand in favor of legalizing recreational cannabis. It took some time for Gov. Wolf to come around to this position, and the efforts of his Lt. Governor, John Fetterman, are largely to thank for evolution on the issue of legal marijuana.

Patients in Pennsylvania were denied access to medical marijuana on Tuesday, the result of a crash in the system used to track sales. 

All such transactions in the state are processed through a tracking software system called MJ Freeway, which is required by the Pennsylvania Department of Health under the medical cannabis law there. 

Pennsylvania medical officials have given the thumb's up to doctors to prescribing medical marijuana for patients with anxiety disorders. This decision happens just one month after Ohio officials refused to do the same.

The new regulation from the Pennsylvania Department of Health went into effect this month. While the measure allows for prescribing marijuana, it also mandates that cannabis not be the first choice, but rather used in tandem with traditional treatments. 

Health officials have expanded the pool of patients eligible to receive medical cannabis access.

The State Health Department Secretary publicly announced on Thursday that patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders and/or Tourette syndrome will be eligible to receive recommendations to legally access medical cannabis products. The new rules take effect on July 20.

Lieutenant Gov. John Fetterman called the changes “a truly powerful expansion” of the state’s program.