Editorial: Big business should dominate PA medical marijuana market

Pennsylvanians won’t be seeing mom-and-pop shops selling weed anytime soon, but in the case of medical marijuana, big business may be the right spark for success.

On Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill legalizing medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, making it the 24th state to do so. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it’s going to take up to a year before marijuana grown in Pennsylvania will be able to treat in-state residents, and there are rigorous steps businesses must take in order to produce and sell marijuana.

These steps are also pricey.

According to Daniel Clearfield, a Harrisburg attorney who specializes in regulated substances, to be a grower-processor, the estimated investment is anywhere from $5 million to $10 million.

While the cost, wait time and lack of insurance companies covering medical marijuana are concerns for Pennsylvanians, beginning the infrastructure is crucial, and to ensure the industry’s sustainability and legitimacy, we must start now.

High-functioning businesses that grow, sell and research marijuana will lay the foundation for medical marijuana dispensing in Pennsylvania, making the state’s transition more coordinated and more likely to be a success.

Through regulation, the companies that specialize in growing and processing medical marijuana — such as Vireo Health — can carefully grow the market. Instead of flooding the new market with small distributors and lowly regulated growers, large businesses can set pricing standards among themselves through competition and may encourage insurance companies to begin insuring medical marijuana by legitimizing the market.

Vireo Health, a Minneapolis-based, marijuana-derived medication firm that also operates in New York state, is considering Lehigh Valley for growing and processing sites.

“This type of law is going to draw the highest-functioning, the most professional groups,” CEO of Vireo Health Kyle Kingsley told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Medical marijuana is used to treat legitimate medical conditions, but it still carries a stigma that underwrites its medical value.

Currently in Pennsylvania, medical marijuana isn’t usually covered by insurance, and the law specifically exempts insurance companies from having to cover it. This means patients have to pay out of pocket, which typically amounts to hundreds of dollars every month.

With large-scale, professional companies representing the medical marijuana market, the perception of the drug — which is still federally recognized as a Schedule 1 drug, along with heroin and methamphetamines — can shift.

This shift can encourage more people who are suffering to try medical marijuana and, in turn, encourage insurers to work with the big businesses that sell medical marijuana.

Insurance companies and the businesses that plan to establish themselves in Pennsylvania won’t make decisions on costs or insurance plans overnight. It’s going to take months or even years, but Wolf’s signature on the medical marijuana law is a good start.

When it comes to medical marijuana’s advent in Pennsylvania, big business paves a promising route.