LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – Nearly $3,800 in Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency grant money has paid for 48 hours of overtime that allowed Lower Pottsgrove Police Department officers to learn more about, and deal with offenses of, the state’s Medical Marijuana Program.
The amount represented slightly more than half of the department’s entire overtime costs during April, police Chief Rick Bell stated in his monthly report to the township Board of Commissioners. Another $1,009 in additional federal and state reimbursements covered overtime costs for department special assignments, drug task force, DUI checkpoint, and traffic monitoring efforts, he added.
The medical marijuana law, passed in April 2016, intends to provide access to marijuana-based products for patients with what the Department of Health calls “serious” medical conditions using safe, effective, and regulated delivery methods.
Since then, two medical marijuana dispensaries have opened within the Greater Pottstown area, along with several others within a 20-mile range of the township. Additionally, the state’s medical marijuana physician registry lists a number of local doctors licensed to approve the purchase of qualified medical marijuana products for specific conditions.
Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana industry is “booming,” Scranton area television station WNEP reported late last month. Accompanying that growth is the need to know more about what the law allows as well as its potential for violations, for which Lower Pottsgrove officers are now being better prepared.
The commission grant, the chief wrote in his report submitted Monday (May 1, 2023), paid for the classes officers attended, any overtime needed for their participation, and the overtime paid to other officers to cover shifts left unfilled by those in class.
Photo by Vitalik Radko on Deposit Photos, used under license
