Gov. Andrew Cuomo has officially agreed to legislation that will make emergency access to medical marijuana available to extremely ill patients prior to the start of the state’s new medical marijuana program in January. This step will generate an accelerated endorsement system for people facing degenerative diseases and those who further face the risk of death or serious harm without the drug. It also allows state health officials to work with regulated producers who can provide marijuana to patients as soon as possible.
Under the emergency access program, the state Health Department is required to register additional organizations to produce medical marijuana quickly, including out-of-state companies already making the drug. “I deeply sympathize with New Yorkers suffering from serious illness and I appreciate that medical marijuana may alleviate their chronic pain and debilitating symptoms,” Cuomo said in a memo.
The state granted licenses last summer to five companies that will expand and sell the drug. Each company will be allowed to operate four dispensaries. Cuomo said the program is on track to begin operating in January.
Not surprisingly, some legislators and advocacy groups have their own reservations. They expressed doubts that seriously ill patients would be able to get the drug in January, and lobbied Cuomo to approve the emergency access program, which is separate from the state’s medical marijuana program. Critics of the state’s medical marijuana program have claimed that it is too limited and restrictive. Moreover, critics claim there will not be a sufficient amount of dispensaries to serve patients in every part of the state.
Cuomo said he is requesting that the state health department examine and audit county-level population, as well as medical data, to ascertain whether more medical marijuana manufacturers and dispensaries are required. Those who supported this step for medical cannabis claimed that access to the drug should be hastened, and it is predominantly of great value to patients if the implementation and execution of the law gets pushed forward.
“We are very pleased that the governor did the right thing today,” said Julie Netherland, deputy New York state director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “For us, the proof will be when patients can get the medicine they need. The idea here is to help those patients who literally could die without medical marijuana and the main group that we’re really focused on are children with very severe forms of epilepsy. Who sometimes have dozens and dozens of seizures a day! This group is really at risk. In our campaign alone, since the bill was signed in July of 2014, there have been three children with these severe forms of epilepsy who have died.”
The state’s program will already be one of the most strictly monitored and regulated in the country when it begins functioning. The marijuana will be required to be in the form of a tincture, oil, or other non-smokable form that can be ingested or vaporized. Qualifying conditions include cancer, AIDS, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and epilepsy.
The bill instructs and mandates the state to issue patient cards to qualified, critically ill patients as soon as possible, making it clear that they are medical marijuana patients, and affording them some protection from law enforcement and child protective services. People with AIDS, terminal cancers, and the parents of children with severe epilepsy have long sought early access, arguing that critically ill individuals shouldn’t have to wait any longer.
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