Legislation to regulate medical marijuana facilities is wending its through Salisbury Township government channels with the prospect of at least one facility in the township.

Salisbury Township Director of Planning and Zoning Cynthia Sopka presented a draft zoning ordinance to amend Chapter 27 of the Salisbury Township Zoning Ordinance for the regulation of medical marijuana facilities to the Salisbury Township Planning Commission April 11.

Sopka distributed copies of the draft ordinance to planners for review. The ordinance may be discussed at the next planning commission meeting, 7:30 p.m. May 9, meeting room, municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.

After the April 11 meeting, Salisbury Township Consulting Engineer David J. Tettemer told a reporter for The Press, the process for considering the marijuana dispensary ordinance, as with any new zoning ordinance or zoning ordinance amendment, requires a public meeting and public hearing.

Sopka, Tettemer and Atty. John W. Ashley, Salisbury Township solicitor, crafted the township amendment, based on an ordinance proposed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which licenses and regulates marijuana facilities.

“We followed a model that was provided by the Department of Health,” Sopka told planners. “We don’t have any areas where there would be any industrial growing facilities,” she added.

The ordinance amendment would cover a clinic, research center, medical marijuana growing and processing, transport by vehicle, offices and dispensary, Tettemer said.

A permit holder must have a pharmacist or doctor at its primary location, with additional locations staffed by a registered nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant.

By consensus, Salisbury commissioners Dec. 22, 2016, tasked Ashley to prepare the ordinance.

Salisbury could be high on the list for a medical marijuana facility because Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest, with its John and Dorothy Morgan Cancer Center, is located in the township medical overlay district, which includes Cedar Crest Professional Park, 1255 S. Cedar Crest Blvd., across from Lehigh Valley Hospital.

A representative of Bluestone Biomedical Group, Harrisburg, made a presentation at the March 9 township commissioners’ meeting, stating the firm is considering a site for a medical marijuana dispensary in Cedar Crest Professional Park. Sopka said she spoke with a leasing agent for Cedar Crest Professional Park about a lease sought for a medical marijuana dispensary.

A public meeting on the medical marijuana dispensary zoning ordinance amendment would likely be held prior to the start of a planning commission meeting, at either 6:30 p.m. or 7 p.m., perhaps as soon as the May 9 planners’ meeting, but more likely, prior to the June 13 planners’ meeting.

The township ordinance must be submitted for review to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, Tettemer said. The township public meeting and hearing would need to be advertised about two weeks before being held.

After the public hearing, and if planners recommend approval of the amendment to township commissioners, a public hearing would be held prior to a commissioners’ meeting, at either 6 or 6:30 p.m., possibly at one of the June, July or August township commissioners’ meetings, depending on the planners’ consideration and recommendation of the proposed amendment. Commissioners could approve or reject the planners’ recommendation.

Salisbury isn’t the first Lehigh Valley municipality to consider or enact regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries and associated enterprises. Among them are Emmaus, Upper Macungie Township and Hanover, East Allen and William townships, all Northampton County.

Salisbury is in Region 2 of the six Pennsylvania Department of Health medical marijuana regions. Region 2 includes Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe, Pike, Luzerne, Wyoming, Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wayne counties.

Region 2 is allocated four dispensary permits and two grower-processor permits. The health department may issue permits for up to 50 dispensaries, with each allowed up to three locations. The health department began the medical marijuana program when Gov. Tom Wolf signed Senate Bill 3 into law April 17, 2016.

The health department accepted permit applications until March 20 with approval of applications anticipated at the end of June. Dispensaries are not expected to open until April-May 2018.

The bill defines medical marijuana in the forms of a pill, oil, gel, creams or ointments, vaporization (excluding dry leaf or plant form), tincture and liquid.

Patients with a serious medical condition as certified by a physician will be able to obtain medical marijuana at approved dispensaries.

According to the health department website, studies have shown medical marijuana can help patients suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, autism, cancer, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and sickle cell anemia.

As of March 1, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ website, 28 states and the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico approved medical marijuana legislation.