(NEWS FROM Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried) Monday, November 2, 2015  

Medical Marijuana Expedited Access Bill Awaits Governor’s Action. The Governor Will Sign or Veto the Bill A. 7060 by November 11

“The law that created New York’s medical marijuana program was passed in 2014 and is supposed to be up and running by January 2016. But there is a real danger that in January, many seriously ill patients will not be able to get access to medical marijuana, and their conditions will deteriorate, even jeopardizing their lives.  Many of these patients are young children with severe forms of epilepsy who have been successfully treated with particular forms of medical marijuana in other states.

The Medical Marijuana Expedited Access Bill, which passed the legislature in June with overwhelming bipartisan votes, would give the NYS Health Department flexibility to modify requirements of the 2014 law and regulations to speed up production and distribution for patients in the most urgent need.

Hopefully, the system will be up and running on schedule.  However, if problems develop, the bill could provide tools that the Health Department – and some desperately ill patients and their families – will be very grateful to have.

The bill would not undo any provisions or restrictions in the 2014 medical marijuana law, but it would give the Commissioner of Health the power to make exceptions if he finds it necessary.

I have been in discussions with the Cuomo administration about the bill for months and have answered every question raised by the Governor’s staff; I am not aw are of any argument against the bill.

I urge Governor Cuomo to sign the bill to give the Health Department more options to get this medicine to these patients.”

Contact  Misha Sogut, (518) 455-4941,  Sogutm@nysa.us, 822 Legislative Office Building, Albany, NY 12248 – Tel: 518-455-4941 ,250 Broadway, #2232, New York, NY 10007 – Tel: 212-312-1492, GottfriedR@assembly.state.ny.us  Twitter: @DickGottfried