Pubdate: Sun, 03 Aug 2014
Source: Reporter, The (Lansdale, PA)
Copyright: 2014 The Reporter
Contact:  http://www.thereporteronline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3468
Page: A7

STATE SEN. LEACH INHALES ON TAXPAYER-FUNDED TRIP TO COLO.

HARRISBURG (AP) - A Pennsylvania state senator admitted he used
marijuana during a recent taxpayer-funded trip to Colorado to observe
the state's legal marijuana industry in action.

Sen. Daylin Leach, a leading proponent of legalized marijuana in the
Legislature, said he took two hits from a vape pen, similar to an
e-cigarette, at his hotel. The device vaporizes a form of marijuana
and is smokeless. Leach said it was a gift from a facility he and
aides toured during the trip, which cost nearly $5,000.

Leach, a Democrat who represents parts of Montgomery and Delaware
counties, said Friday that on his last night in Colorado he wanted to
use the drug for the first time in about 25 years because people have
told him potency is greater than it used to be.

"I did two hits, which was less than I would have done when I was in
high school," Leach said. "I definitely felt the effects of it."

He said the legal weed caused him to giggle a bit through dinner, and
afterward in his hotel room he did something uncharacteristic - he
watched a romantic comedy on television.

Leach toured growing facilities, laboratories and retail dispensaries.
He said the vape pen came in a gift bag along with a pair of
sunglasses and two lanyards.

A bill co-sponsored by Leach that would allow medical marijuana passed
a state Senate committee with a unanimous vote in late June.

It would permit marijuana to be grown, processed and dispensed, with
oversight by a Board of Medical Cannabis Licensing. Patients would
need a $100 access card and would have to establish a
patient-physician relationship, as well as written confirmation of a
qualifying medical condition.

Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican former prosecutor, has said his support
for legalized marijuana extends only to the use of an extract to treat
severe seizures in children.
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