What happened to NY’s marijuana initiative?
Laura Nahmias
In the four months after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his plan to legalize medical marijuana through an existing law, evidence of progress has been hard to come by.
Despite unprecedented support in both houses of the Legislature, including Senate Republicans who were previously opposed to the measure, legalization advocates are skeptical that a more comprehensive bill will pass this year.
And while the state’s health department announced earlier this year that at least ten hospitals statewide were interested in participating in the governor’s plan, representatives for several of the institutions in question, including Roswell Park Cancer Center, Montefiore Medical Center and New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, told Capital they had not had any recent discussions with the state about how to move the program forward.
Cuomo’s plan, which would have legalized marijuana through an existing 1980 state law, was widely criticized as unworkable. It would allow just 20 hospitals statewide to dispense the drug and would require prospective patients to appear before a board of doctors to receive approval, which could create a bottleneck for thousands of patients seeking timely access to the drug.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/magazine/2014/04/8544512/what-happened-nys-marijuana-initiative
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