Feb 18, 2019 8 min read

Whatever the motivations behind “Reefer Madness,” the 1936 propaganda film made a lasting impression on generations.

”The motion picture you are about to witness may startle you. It would not have been possible otherwise to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new drug menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers. Marijuana is that drug: a violent narcotic, an unspeakable scourge, the real Public Enemy No. 1.”

To this day, images of crazed Depression-era piano players – and their successors in stereotype, including long-haired hippies and weed-espousing rappers – tend to stick in our collective mind when it comes to using cannabis.

The people who who attended a recent informational session about medical marijuana, though, looked pretty much like anyone you’d see anywhere. That included the presenter, Bob Scherer, whose clean-cut appearance and professional demeanor are in keeping with what you’d expect from a young entrepreneur.

The 2003 Peters Township High School graduate is the owner of Releaf Specialists, a business that works with clients who seek state-issued medical marijuana identification cards. His presentation Feb. 9 at Sterling Yoga and Wellness Center in Scott Township provided those in attendance the opportunity to learn more about a possible path toward mitigating pain and other other symptoms of various health issues.

“If we can provide a better quality of life,” Scherer said, “that’s the goal with cannabis.”

How exactly that occurs within the human body remains a subject of much speculation. Research within the U.S. scientific community has been limited by the longtime classification of marijuana – “cannabis” refers to the applicable genus of flowering plants and has become the preferred term – as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

But records of its therapeutic benefits extend back at least to the second century B.C. and continue into the late 1800s, when Sir William Osler, the Canadian physician acknowledged as the Father of Modern Medicine, wrote: “Cannabis is one of the best medicines for migraines.”

Fast-forward to the 21st century, and the notion of reviving marijuana for medicinal purposes has gained traction to the point where it has become legal in numerous states for that purpose, with Pennsylvania taking the plunge in 2016.

As with most legislation, the measure carries a complex series of stipulations to go along with the revenue generator of a $50 processing fee for each medical marijuana ID card issued. And after nearly three years, many of those who feel they could benefit remain hazy about the details.

That’s where Scherer and others like him come into play.

Aiding the process

Releaf Specialists, which has one of its five locations in Washington, is among the companies – Compassionate Certification Centers is another with a Western Pennsylvania presence – that facilitate the process of obtaining the state’s permission to purchase cannabis products from licensed dispensaries. Each of the certification companies works with physicians who can provide the appropriate recommendations for the issuance of ID cards.

Qualifying conditions for certification

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Autism
• Cancer/remission therapy
• Crohn’s disease
• Damage to the nervous tissue of the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord) with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity
• Dyskinetic and spastic movement disorder
• Epilepsy
• Glaucoma
• HIV/AIDS
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Intractable seizures
• Multiple sclerosis
• Neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, etc.)
• Neuropathies
• Opioid use disorder for which conventional therapeutic interventions are contraindicated or ineffective
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic intractable pain
• Sick cell anemia
• Terminal illness

“You can’t get into the dispensary without the card,” Scherer explained. “You can’t get a card without seeing the doctor. We’re the doctors who kind of start the whole process and begin the program.”

State law provides for 21 qualifying conditions, varying from cancer to gastrointestinal disorders to terminal illness, for someone to be considered for a card.

“What we require is that we get documentation from a provider who has treated you for one of these conditions in the past,” Scherer said. “You don’t even need a letter from your doctor. As long as you have an after-visit summary, something from your portal that says you have a diagnosis, our doctors will see you.”

He recommends sending the relevant information to Releaf Specialists prior to arranging for a visit.

“If you qualify, we’ll bring you in,” he said. “We’ll schedule you. You’re 99 percent guaranteed to get your medical marijuana card. If you’re on the borderline and you come in, we don’t charge you to be told no.”

For those who are told yes, the fee is $200. Certifications are valid for one year, and follow-up visits for renewal are $100.

Cannabis products

Further guidance is available at dispensaries with regard to the various types of products available for purchase, including concentrates, pills, capsules, tinctures, creams and transdermal patches. “Gummy”-type edibles are not legal in Pennsylvania, nor are any forms of cannabis that can be smoked.

What the products contain is subject to a veritable alphabet soup of cannabinoids, the chemical compounds found within cannabis plants: 113 have been identified so far. The most prevalent and widely recognized are tetrahydrocannabinol, which provides the intoxicating effect most commonly associated with marijuana, and cannabidiol, a pharmaceutical form of which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of epilepsy disorders.

“CBD is known to lessen the intoxicating effects of THC,” Scherer explained, noting that he and the physicians with whom he is affiliated recommend cannabis products that contain a ratio of about three of the former to one of the latter, with five milligrams as the base for intake of THC.

But again, that simply is a recommendation. Medical practitioners in Pennsylvania have yet to prescribe anything marijuana-related, and so determining what exactly to consume can be a trial-and-error exercise on the part of the patient.

“It’s up to you to figure it out,” Scherer said.

In the meantime, state legislators are working on figuring out the future of cannabis.

Recreational use?

On Feb. 6, state Rep. Jake Wheatley Jr., D-Pittsburgh, introduced a bill to amend the Medical Marijuana Act of 2016 to include a new part that sets parameters for legalized “adult-use cannabis.”

“There are tremendous benefits to legalizing marijuana and few downsides,” Wheatley said in August, when he launched an online petition in support of such a measure. “It’s estimated that legalization would generate more than $580 million in annual tax revenue for Pennsylvania. That’s money to balance our budget, strengthen our economy, bolster our workforce and improve our schools.

“What’s more,” he continued, “legalization would save taxpayers millions in enforcement costs while freeing up crime-fighting resources to combat serious, violent crime. Prohibiting recreational use of marijuana does nothing to meaningfully reduce access to this relatively safe drug.”

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has also set out on a 67-county listening tour to discuss legalizing recreational use of marijuana.

But several high-ranking members of the Republican-controlled General Assembly have expressed opposition to relaxing the state’s marijuana laws. In response to a recent suggestion along those lines by Gov. Tom Wolf, for example, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman of Centre County called legalizing marijuana for adult use “reckless and irresponsible,” according to multiple media outlets.

At present, cannabis is legal for recreational use in Alaska, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. It remains fully illegal in Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

And 83 years after “Reefer Madness,” no matter who might be seeking marijuana for symptom relief, federal law continues to list it on the same schedule as Ecstasy, LSD and heroin.