For years, Lisa Tollner, co-founder of the California marijuana edibles company Sensi Products, says she’s received calls and emails from customers reporting her cannabis-infused Sensi Chew caramels had helped alleviate pain, insomnia, nausea and other ailments. But Tollner wanted more.

“These people are telling me their stories, but with no real consistency,” said Tollner, who was interested in hard data on how her products worked, not shifting anecdotal evidence. “I need ways to prove our products’ efficacy.”

Thomas Jefferson University in Center City has created a medical marijuana education and research center, which the school called the “first center of its kind.”

The Center for Medical Cannabis Education & Research, part of the Institute for Emerging Health Professions, will provide guidance to clinicians and patients about cannabinoid focused-therapies.

Child patients with serious medical conditions will be the first Pennsylvanians granted legal access to medical marijuana — potentially as early as this summer.

Health Secretary Karen Murphy said Wednesday that her department is in the midst of drafting temporary guidelines that would allow caregivers to obtain the drug from other states while production is ramped up in Pennsylvania.

"We believe it's crucial to expedite this temporary regulation to provide this medical treatment option to minors who are in dire need," Murphy said, at a press conference outlining the process. Those regulations are expected in July, she said.

Temporary regulations for the state's Medical Marijuana Program are expected next month.

To date, 23 states have moved forward and legalized marijuana for certain medical conditions while several others have legalized one ingredient in the marijuana plant.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Story Highlights

On April 17, Pennsylvania became the latest state to pass medical marijuana legislation, which will take effect this month. And recently Ohio’s House of Representatives has passed a plan to permit medical marijuana in the state.

On April 17, Pennsylvania became the latest state to pass medical marijuana legislation, which will take effect this month. And recently Ohio’s House of Representatives has passed a plan to permit medical marijuana in the state.

Six states that allow marijuana use legal tests to determine driving while impaired by the drug that have no scientific basis, according to a study by the nation's largest automobile club that calls for scrapping those laws.

The study commissioned by AAA's safety foundation said it's not possible to set a blood-test threshold for THC, the chemical in marijuana that makes people high, that can reliably determine impairment.

Yet the laws in five of the six states automatically presume a driver guilty if that person tests higher than the limit, and not guilty if it's lower.

As a result, drivers who are unsafe may be going free while others may be wrongly convicted, the foundation said.

Hundreds of optimistic entrepreneurs and potential investors flooded into Philadelphia on Saturday to garner insight into the state's budding cannabis industry, but experts cautioned against overzealous ventures into a market still facing many roadblocks.

Less than two weeks after Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill to establish a medical marijuana program, Philadelphia-based Greenhouse Ventures hosted the state's first "Innovation in the Cannabis Industry" conference at the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

The eight-hour conference, which was a part of Philly Tech Week 2016, featured panelists discussing various cannabis industry topics including investments trends, future business outlook, technology and medicinal research.

Following the lead of twenty-three other states, Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Wolfe made history here on April 17 by signing The Medical Marijuana Act (SB3)into law. Two days later, he turned up in King of Prussia to tout the bi-partisan legislation before “jubilant” crowds, saying, “This is about helping peoples’ lives, about helping people that are going to be better, faster. They’re going to feel better and that is just such a rewarding thing.”

And he could just be right, as our law covers such conditions as:

Medical marijuana is now legal in Pennsylvania, and that means new job opportunities for people looking to get started in the business.

Doug Porter with the Cannabis Career Institute ran the workshop that taught about marijuana jobs in dispensary management, bud-tending, delivery service and security.

He says during the seminar, people learned how to get started in the evolving industry.

“We want to make sure that people are fully aware of what their options are,” Porter tells KYW Newsradio.

Porter says the recent legalization of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania makes this a prime time to start a marijuana business.