In June, both houses of the State legislature, with an overwhelming bipartisan support, passed a bill for the State to establish a program for critically ill patients to have emergency and immediate access to medical marijuana. The bill directs the State to issue patient cards to qualified critically ill patients and provides them protection from law enforcement and child protective services.
The bipartisan bill was delivered to the Governor on October 30 and was approved and signed into law by Governor Cuomo. Many, especially parents, friends, and relatives of critically ill patients are relieved with the approval of the bill, as it provides their patients expeditious access to medical marijuana which may relieve their suffering.
The medical marijuana law was passed a year ago but not one patient has been able to have access to medical marijuana. It was tragic that despite its approval, at least four children, who would have benefited from the program, died without having access to the much-needed medicine. Not to mention only a month ago, longtime medical marijuana advocate Beverly McClain, who had metastatic cancer, died without benefiting from the law she helped pass.
NY’s medical marijuana program is scheduled to become operational by January 2016, but some are not optimistic that the program will come online as scheduled. The state has yet to initiate a system for patients to register and several of the proposed dispensaries are having problems finalizing sites. There is also the problem of accessibility as the 20 dispensaries statewide for almost 20 million people across 54,000 square miles, is not enough for those who need them the most.