Pubdate: Mon, 09 Dec 2013
Source: New York Post (NY)
Copyright: 2013 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/letters_editor.htm
Website: http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Carl Campanile

TOKE'S ON US: NY POT RX LEGAL SINCE 1980

Holy smoke! Here's a little-known fact to give sick folks high hopes: 
New York already has a law on the books to dispense marijuana to 
cancer patients.

The medical-marijuana law was approved by the state Legislature and 
thenGov. Hugh Carey in 1980 following an appeal from brain-cancer 
patient Antonio Olivieri, a former state Assembly member from 
Manhattan who lobbied legislators from the hospital.

The law - called the Antonio G. Olivieri Controlled Substance 
Therapeutic Research Program - authorizes hospitals to administer pot 
to cancer and glaucoma patients for medicinal purposes following 
approval by medical review boards.

"[Marijuana] was really the only thing during one course of 
chemotherapy that allowed me to combat nausea," said Olivieri, who 
died shortly after the law was passed. In signing the bill, Carey 
said, "Patients who could have benefited from its use have been 
unable to obtain marijuana without engaging in illegal activities."

The forgotten law is big news for the ongoing push to make a reefer 
Rx routine. "Dispensing marijuana for medicinal purposes is the law 
in New York. But it would require administrative action, action by 
the Health Department, to take effect," said Assembly Health 
Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom