In 2014, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo finally caved to demands from medical marijuana advocates by signing the Compassionate Care Act in July, but advocates say that endless delays and confusing regulations unfairly hurt the people who need marijuana the most.
The legislation passed authority over to the New York State Department of Health to construct an appropriate regulatory framework for medical marijuana. After months of deliberation, the department finally released a 120-page proposal to the public and is accepting comments up until Feb. 13, the Village Voice reports.
Advocates are upset.
First, the department will only issue licenses to a total of 20 dispensaries and five producers in the state, which will have to serve approximately 20 million New Yorkers. Second, dispensaries are prohibited from selling smokeable weed. The only acceptable form is oil concentrate or extracts, since the department maintains that smoking cannabis is actively harmful to the lungs. Moreover, only five strains will be permitted, even though activists say that the entire reason for the abundance of strains in the first place is because there are an abundance of medical conditions which require unique types of treatment.
Third, since the state doesn’t have any plans to subsidize the marijuana, advocates believe that low-income patients won’t get the care they need, since marijuana isn’t covered by insurance.
In these respects, New York’s proposed program is distinct from the 22 other states with medical marijuana programs and is unusually restrictive. California, in comparison, allows the issuance of so-called “green cards” to cover headaches or insomnia. However, Cuomo previously threatened to veto more inclusive legislation and only reluctantly signed off on the Compassionate Care Act.
“Based on the draft regulations, we have serious concerns that New York’s program could be overly restrictive and limit patient access,” said Julie Netherland, deputy state director at the Drug Policy Alliance. “We hope that, based on this kind of input from the public, the Cuomo Administration will modify the regulations with an eye towards insuring that all who are unnecessarily suffering have safe and legal access to the medicine they need.”
But in the interim, there’s still plenty of time for activists to get their message across, as access to marijuana isn’t expected until 2016. On Wednesday, community groups converged on Hostos Community College in the Bronx to inform the public as to how the proposed regulations would impact users of medical marijuana.
“The proposed regulations are highly and unjustifiably restrictive and will make it as difficult as possible to implement the Compassionate Care Act,” Assemblyman Richard Gottfried stated. “The Health Department should move quickly to clean up the regulations in response to the comments it is getting. And the Legislature needs to amend the law to take out some of the pointless restrictions that were added last year. It is distressing that the state is taking so long – and it will take even longer – for a single suffering patient to get any help.”
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