County commissioners from across the state got together last week in Gettysburg for the annual conference and trade show of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

A lot goes on at the CCAP conference. For Butler County, the most visible development was the election of two commissioners to officer positions — Kevin Boozel as second vice president and Leslie Osche as treasurer. Congratulations to both of them.

Less dramatic but at least as newsworthy were some of the resolutions that were introduced, each proposed for a platform of issues under consideration by the state legislature.

Notable among these proposals were two submitted by Commissioner Laureen Cummings, a Lackawanna County Republican. Both had to do with marijuana.

Cummings’ first resolution urges CCAP to oppose legislation permitting the recreational use or sale of marijuana. It was tabled without further discussion.

Her second resolution seeks CCAP support to amend state law to give county and local governments the option of prohibiting or restricting medical marijuana sales and the sale or distribution of hemp-infused products within their jurisdictions. It would be similar to the opt-out votes that municipal government boards conducted earlier this year in Butler, Lawrence, Mercer and Beaver counties over hosting a mini-casino. Mount Airy Pittsburgh announced recently it would locate in northeastern Beaver County at the junction of Interstate 376 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Cummings’ second resolution would mimic Colorado law allowing municipalities to ban recreational marijuana sales even though its use is legal there.

But the two resolutions underscore a broader issue that should be resolved now instead of later.

Medical marijuana is not the same as recreational marijuana. Regulation of the two industries should not be mingled.

Take alcohol for example. Alcohol is considered a powerful mood-altering and addictive substance. You have to go to a specially licensed store to buy it. But alcohol also is an antiseptic, available at drug stores in a form you can’t drink.

It seems inexorable that Pennsylvania will gravitate to a similar delivery pattern with medical and recreational marijuana: with therapeutic derivatives available by prescription from a pharmacy, much like any other regulation substance; and recreational forms available from state-licensed dealerships similar to liquor stores.

Every state has the right and responsibility to establish its rules and policies regarding the sales of beer, wine and liquor. In theory, the states have the right to do the same with recreational marijuana — or they will eventually. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency still classifies it as a Schedule 1 narcotic.

But attitudes are changing and ultimately it will happen — recreational marijuana will come to Pennsylvania. When it does, it will need licensed and dedicated stores for its distribution.

But medical marijuana will not. Legislators and the industry should see the wisdom in segregating medical from recreational uses, and grafting the medical arm of production into existing pharmaceutical distribution streams.

It just makes more sense to regard two issues separately, even though they stem from the same plant.