New York to Allow Limited Medical Marijuana
Thursday, June 19, 2014
WXXI
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marijuana plant (cwhitfield/flickr)
Governor
Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature have agreed to a limited medical
marijuana program for patients with cancer, AIDS, and childhood seizure
disorders.
Cuomo,
who had expressed reservations about allowing medical marijuana, said
the bill will grant sick people access to the drug while imposing limits
that will prevent abuse of marijuana.
"It strikes the right balance,” Cuomo said.
The bill will not allow smoking of marijuana. Cuomo’s acting health commissioner said using a vaporizer can work just as well.
Only doctors will be allowed to prescribe the drug, and will have to take a special course before they are permitted to do so.
Patients
will have to register with the state Health Department, and will have
to carry their registration cards with them at all times.
And there will be criminal penalties for doctors and patients who try to sell or use the drug for other purposes.
The
governor said one of the most important provisions, to him, is that he
can shut down the program at any time, for any reason.
“You can just pull the plug out of the wall at any moment and the entire system stops,” Cuomo said.
Advocates for medical marijuana, who held a vigil at the Capitol for the past several days, were cautiously supportive.
Holly
Anderson, with the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester, said she’s
“excited and relieved” that there will be some sort of measure approved
this year, but added that she finds it “disappointing that smoking has
been eliminated." She’s also concerned that some of the restrictions on
doctors, including possible felony charges for any alleged abuses, could
discourage physicians from prescribing the drug.
Senate
sponsor Diane Savino initially said that eliminating smoking of
marijuana as a treatment was a “non-starter." But she now says she had
to compromise in order to get relief for children with severe seizure
disorders, who can benefit from an oil-based derivative of marijuana.
Several of the children had also been in the halls outside the
governor’s office. “You can’t stand in the way,” Savino said. “How could
we say no?"
Under
the plan, the state Department of Health will choose five private
companies to grow and distribute the marijuana, all within New York
State. Each company will be eligible to run four dispensaries for a
total of 20 statewide.
It
will be some time before patients will have access to the drug. The new
law would not take effect for 18 months, or even longer if Cuomo’s
health department decides more time is needed to get the program up and
running.
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