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Updates in the Big Apple
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]I[/dropcap]n 2014, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, signed the Compassionate Care Act after various revisions were made to prohibit smoking cannabis and decreasing the amount of eligible illnesses, making New York the 23rd state to legalize medical cannabis. Since then, many patients and advocates have been worried about the restrictive guidelines of the bill.
The Compassionate Care Act requires that patients diagnosed with a severely debilitating or life-threatening illness to pay a $50 fee to apply with the Department of Health (DOH), and must provide both their personal information as well as a doctor’s certification. If approved for a registry card, the card will only be valid for one year for patients who do not have a life-threatening illness, and for those who have a terminal illness, the card will be valid until death.
Although these guidelines seem simple enough, what makes the bill so restrictive is the fact that only 10 illnesses are currently covered by the bill, while only five organizations are allowed to operate within the state by opening only 20 dispensaries for the almost 20 million people residing in the state, according to The Village Voice. Aside from this, the companies will only be able to carry five types of medical cannabis including oils, tinctures, capsules and other non-smokeable forms.
To clarify exactly what forms of cannabis New York patients are able to ingest under the Compassionate Care Act, CULTURE spoke with Legislative Director at Empire State NORML, Doug Greene, to get some professional insight, “Patients will be allowed capsules for oral administration and metered liquid or oil preparations for vaporization or oromucosal or sublingual administration, as well as any other forms approved by the Department of Health,” Greene stated. So far, patients will not be able to obtain cannabis in flower form or as edibles, unlike what is permitted in other states where cannabis is medically legal.
On top of the restrictive list of allowable forms of cannabis, patients are only allowed a 30-day supply of whichever form of cannabis their physician prescribed with the ability to get a refill the last seven days of their 30-day trial. The prescribed cannabis must be in its original package and cannot be consumed in public.
A more recent concern amongst patients and professionals is the mandatory course physicians are required to take in order to be certified to administer cannabis to patients. Doctors have to pay $249 to participate in a four-hour course titled, “Practitioner Education for the Medical Marijuana Program,” which will cover how to properly administer dosage and the various warnings and precautions associated with cannabis use. Although this seems reassuring for patients, many believe that four hours is not nearly enough for physicians to become properly educated on cannabis and its various strains and cannabinoids. In a recently published article by The Village Voice, the man who constructed the bill, Richard Gottfried, comments about how there are definitely changes that need to be made. Gottfried had first introduced the Compassionate Care Act in 1997 but it was given little to no consideration. Now 13 years later, the bill was passed but carelessly deconstructed by Governor Cuomo. Gottfried, like many, believes that the bill makes it nearly impossible for patients to access the medicine they desperately need in its current state.
Fortunately, for those concerned that various aspects of the bill will prevent medical cannabis from being legally accessible in January, Governor Cuomo signed two bills that will allow critically ill patients expedited access to medical cannabis. The bill will also allow for suppliers to apply with the Department of Health to offer services to patients, with the ability to possibly obtain resources from out of state, according to Crain’s New York Business. Gottfried, who sponsored the bills, agrees that immediate action needs to be taken for those in dire need of alternative medicine, “This emergency access law is designed to get medicine to the neediest patients, including young children, as quickly as possible.” There have already been a handful of deaths in the slow coming of the Compassionate Care Act, showing those in New York and the rest of the United States just how important cannabis is in the lives of so many.
New York’s medical marijuana program is slated to become operational in January of 2016, but the state has yet to launch a system for patients to register and just unveiled the mandatory doctor training in mid-October. Advocates have expressed concern that too few doctors will be trained and too few patients able to register in time to take advantage of the program come January.
