Patients struggle to get medical marijuana in New York
Thousands of critically ill New Yorkers have struggled to access medical marijuana, and some doctors are saying state Department of Health failures are keeping the potentially life-saving drug out of reach.
The state agency mishandled regulations on how doctors certify marijuana patients, including thousands in the Lower Hudson Valley suffering from serious illnesses such as epilepsy and cancer, an investigation by The Journal News/lohud has found.
Questions about conflicts, inaccurate statements and botched dispensary openings have also mounted.
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/investigations/2016/02/24/medical-marijuana-new-york/79655424/
Medical Marijuana In New York State: Patient-Advocates Who Built The Program Are Fighting To Access It
MEDFORD, New York — Grimacing, Donna Schwier rubs her left calf and looks out the window of her small basement-level apartment, tucked around the back of a suburban Long Island home. Outside, tree limbs are sagging under heavy new-fallen snow. That’s a concern, since cold and moisture exacerbate the fibromyalgia that has robbed Schwier of her career, her income and her identity.
“Today’s a reasonable pain day,” she says. “I am fresh out of opiates, though.”
The 60 hydrocodone pills she gets each month for the pain are supposed to be enough, but sometimes she can’t help but take more than her allotted two a day. So now she has to wait, pill-free, until she receives her February supply. Thankfully, the 58-year-old has another option, one she’s baked into cookies, that should get her through the dry period — although she doesn’t like to talk about it all that much. That’s because the cannabis she takes isn’t sanctioned in the eyes of the law, since she’s not an official medical marijuana patient.
That’s likely to change soon.
http://www.ibtimes.com/medical-marijuana-new-york-state-patient-advocates-who-built-program-are-fighting-2302390