As we previously discussed in Medical Marijuana 103: Patient and Practitioner Regulations in New York State, practitioners in New York must be registered with the New York State Department of Health (“DOH”) in order to certify patients for medical marijuana use. The DOH maintains a list of registered practitioners on its website, however such list is woefully incomplete. As of the date of this writing there are over 1,360 providers statewide that are registered to certify patients for medical marijuana, but only 32 percent are included on the public list maintained by the DOH.

On Wednesday, November 28, 2017, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill which requires the the DOH to list on its website all practitioners who are certified to recommend medical marijuana to patients.

Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island), the primary sponsor of the bill, stated that one of the biggest complaints from patients in the medical marijuana program was finding a registered doctor.

“People complained that it was difficult to find a doctor near them so they could  be certified as a patient. Because the Department of Health kept the list proprietary, it made it that much harder for patients,” said Senator Savino.

A vote on the bill was held in June 2017, with 62 senators voting in favor of the bill and only 1 senator opposing it. The bill requires that the name, contact information, and other information relating to practitioners registered with the DOH to certify patients for medical marijuana be public information and that the information be maintained on the DOH’s website in searchable form. There is an exception, however – practitioners may still opt-out if they do not wish for their information to be public by informing the DOH in writing. The new requirements will be implemented sixty (60) days after the bill was signed into law by Governor Cuomo.

Sen. Savino was also the main proponent of the bill signed on November 11, 2017 by the Governor which adds post traumatic stress disorder to the list of qualifying conditions treatable with medical marijuana in New York State. The date on which the bill was signed into law is no coincidence, as veterans groups in particular had urged Governor Cuomo to allow those with PTSD to use medical marijuana. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, about eight million adults suffer from PTSD in any given year, including tens of thousands of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. Somewhere between 11% and 20% of those vets will suffer from it each year.

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