Med marijuana at 39 yes votes ‘and growing,’ Savino says
Laura Nahmias
A majority of New York’s state senators are ready to vote "yes” on a bill to legalize medical marijuana in New York State, Independent Democratic Senator Diane Savino told Susan Arbetter during an appearance on “The Capitol Pressroom” Monday.
Savino is co-sponsor of the Compassionate Care Act, which if enacted, would make New York the 22nd state in the country with a medical marijuana program. The bill outlines 20 different severe medical conditions the drug can be prescribed to treat. In recent weeks, Savino further narrowed the list of conditions that would qualify a patient to receive the drug, removing glaucoma and narrowing “arthritis” specifically to “rheumatoid arthritis.”
“We removed glaucoma, interestingly, at the request of the Opthalmologists’ Association,” Savino told Arbetter, explaining that recent advances in opthalmological science have yielded drugs better than marijuana to treat the condition.
“In order to get a benefit from marijuana if you’re a glaucoma patient, you have to smoke a lot of it,” she said.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/05/8545218/med-marijuana-39-yes-votes-and-growing-savino-says?top-featured-1