This blog post is the last in a series of articles discussing the current state of the law in New York regarding medical marijuana. To read the previous post in the series, Medical Marijuana 105: Marijuana in the Workplace, click here.
Despite its potential, New York’s Medical Marijuana Program is off to a slow start. The Program’s struggle is mostly due to the fact that it is one of the most restrictive medical marijuana programs in the country. For example, medical marijuana offerings are limited to mostly liquids, oils and capsules and only state-certified marijuana patients are allowed to enter the limited number of dispensaries. In September 2017, the NYS Department of Health (“DOH”) announced that it would be issuing new regulations in an effort to bolster the Program. Under the new regulations, patients certified for medical marijuana use will have access to more types of products including lotions, tablets, lozenges, patches and more. In addition, prospective patients and practitioners interested in the medical marijuana program will be able to enter a dispensing facility to speak directly with representatives of registered organizations, learn about products, and get information about the medical marijuana program. The regulations will also allow doctors to take a shorter, two-hour program to become eligible to certify patients for medical marijuana use as opposed to the four-hour program that was originally required.
Since the Program’s inception the DOH has also attempted to expand the reach of the Program by adding new qualifying conditions for medical marijuana use. The addition of chronic pain as a qualifying condition, for example, led to a surge of patients seeking to become certified for medical marijuana use. The DOH announced in August 2017 that the number of certified patients increased by 10,744 (72%) since the addition of chronic pain in late March of this year.
Most recently efforts have been made to allow medical marijuana to be used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”). Veterans groups in particular have 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. Over 23 states allow medical marijuana use to treat PTSD, including Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It seems likely, especially given New York’s penchant for growing the Program, that Governor Cuomo will pass the bill adding PTSD as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana use.
The DOH is hoping that all of these changes will bolster the Program. That would be welcome news to New York’s registered organizations which are authorized to manufacture and dispense of medical marijuana in New York State. You may recall from our previous article in this series that on August 1, 2017, the DOH announced the licensure of five new companies to act as registered organizations. In April 2017, however, knowing that the DOH was planning to take such action, the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association sued New York State on behalf of New York’s original registered organizations. The lawsuit aims to stop the DOH from issuing the new licenses and alleges that increasing the number of registered organizations from five to ten will harm the industry because there is not enough demand to meet supply. “The program is still in its infancy, and patient demand is currently too low to support an expansion of the supply market for medical marijuana,” the lawsuit states. “As it is, all five of [the original registered organizations] are sustaining tremendous operating losses, after having made millions of dollars in initial investments.” The five newly-awarded registered organizations filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit but the Court denied the motion last week. We will continue to monitor the litigation and post updates to the New York Health Law Blog as developments occur.
Thank you for being a part of this series discussing the current state of the law in New York regarding medical marijuana. The medical marijuana field is constantly changing as the program in New York grows and evolves.
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