The Pennsylvania Department of Health has issued draft regulations that would govern how doctors become registered to prescribe medical marijuana and certify patients to receive the drug when it becomes available.
"The process for a patient to obtain medical marijuana will begin with the physician, so it's vital to ensure that our regulatory process for those physicians is open and transparent," Secretary of Health Karen Murphy said in a statement.
It requires that doctors who want to certify patients to receive medical marijuana undergo a training course and put their names on a registry. That's included in the regulations, along with a prohibition against doctors advertising their ability to prescribe medical cannabis.
That prohibition is designed to prevent doctors from setting up as "stereotypical pot docs" willing to recommend almost anyone for marijuana at a set price, said Becky Dansky, legislative counsel with the Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-legalization group.
