NY to give the critically ill faster access to medical pot

The emergency access law signed Wednesday allows for an earlier start if the system is certified by the state Health Department and State Police.

“Medical marijuana is oftentimes more effective and typically much safer than most prescription drugs”, said Clif Deuvall of Waco, a U.S. Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, in an announcement of the campaign.

Cuomo had until Wednesday to sign or veto the bill after it was passed by the Legislature in June.

More related to the full-fledged program, Cuomo also directed DOH to assess state- and county-level population and medical data to review the locations for the five licensed marijuana growers’ dispensaries to ensure that they are appropriately located.

The bill posed a conundrum to Cuomo, a Democrat who has favored a cautious and conservative approach to medical cannabis. Because the topic remains untested in the local court of appeal, Guadalupe’s council, acting also as planning commission, voted 5-0 in support of a resolution of intent to pass an ordinance that bans both cultivation and dispensaries but has a regulatory plan in place, should the local ordinance be challenged in court. “This will become real to me when Oliver gets the medicine he needs”.

“I know the Health Department is working hard to get the medical marijuana law up and running on schedule, but glitches happen”, Gottfried said in a statement. “I just can not understand why anyone in the government would not do everything possible to save the lives of those children”.

Last summer, state officials awarded licenses to five companies that will grow and sell the drug. Each company will operate four dispensaries.

The decision comes in anticipation of the bills signed by Governor Jerry Brown regulating cannabis in the state. “Anything the legislature does at this point isn’t going to speed things up”.

Critics of the state’s medical marijuana program say it is too restrictive and there will not be enough dispensaries to serve patients in every part of the state. There will be 20 dispensaries located throughout the state, including three in central NY, for patients to acquire the medication. However, several doubts now exist as to whether the program will even be fully operational come January. Anna had a severe form of epilepsy.

So will Cuomo sign the bill?

“It’s putting a lot of power the hands of one person and so it does make everyone a little bit nervous, hoping that the person in charge is compassionate and sees marijuana as a medicine”, she said. “But we’ve been asking for [Cuomo’s] administration to create a few kind of emergency access for the critically ill since July of 2014”. They need to figure out how much they want to tax the product and where that money will go. “Frankly, further delays are unconscionable”.