Pubdate: Wed, 28 May 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Jesse McKinley

ASSEMBLY BACKS USE OF MARIJUANA FOR ILLNESSES

ALBANY - For the fifth time in seven years, the State Assembly on
Tuesday passed a law legalizing medical marijuana, backing a measure
that would far surpass a program Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced this
year.

But with less than four weeks left in the legislative session, the
prospects for passage in the State Senate remained uncertain.

The bill allows the possession and use of up to two and a half ounces
of marijuana by seriously ill patients whom doctors, physician
assistants or nurse practitioners have certified. It permits
organizations to establish dispensaries to deliver the drug to
registered users and their caregivers, part of what advocates call a
"seed to sale" system meant to prevent abuse or illegal use.

"There are tens of thousands of New Yorkers with serious,
debilitating, life-threatening conditions whose lives could be made
more tolerable and longer by enacting this legislation," said
Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried, a Democrat from Manhattan who heads
the Health Committee and sponsored the bill.

But enacting any bill on medical marijuana may be difficult. The
Assembly, where Democrats are a majority, has passed such bills as far
back as 2007, but Republicans in the Senate have been chilly to the
concept.

This year, supporters' hopes have been aided by the advocacy of
Senator Diane J. Savino of Staten Island, a member of the Independent
Democratic Conference, a breakaway group that shares leadership with
the Republicans. She has sponsored a similar bill in her chamber, and
said she had the support of as many as 40 senators, including several
Republicans.

Ms. Savino's bill narrowly passed the Senate Health Committee last
week; the finance panel could take it up next week.

Still, for the bill to be brought to a vote in the Senate, the
Republican leader, Dean G. Skelos of Long Island, would need to allow
it. Senator Skelos was considerably more circumspect about medical
marijuana's chances on Tuesday, saying no decision had been made on a
vote.

Ms. Savino suggested that talks with Mr. Skelos were continuing and
said she fully expected her bill to be passed before the legislative
session is scheduled to end June 19.

"I'm doing this," she said in an interview. "It's going to
happen."

The Senate and the Assembly bills are more expansive than a program
announced in January by Mr. Cuomo, which uses a 1980 law to allow some
hospitals to dispense marijuana to patients.

Advocates for medical marijuana criticized the governor's plan as
difficult to put in place and fraught with legal and logistic
problems, like getting enough of the drug to treat what could be tens
of thousands of sick people.

Mr. Cuomo has said he would have to review any medical marijuana
bill.

At least 20 states and the District of Columbia already allow some
form of medical marijuana.

In the Assembly on Tuesday, the debate was less about the bill's fate
and more about potential ramifications.

Assemblywoman Jane L. Corwin, a Republican from the Buffalo area,
suggested hypothetically that a drug kingpin, if certified as a
caregiver, might be allowed to give marijuana to his sick child.

Mr. Gottfried, seemingly bewildered, offered a grudging yes and said,
"I would hope that we would not prevent that child from having his or
her life saved because of the sins of the child's father."

Assemblyman Stephen M. Katz, a Mohegan Lake Republican who was
arrested last year with a small bag of marijuana (the charges were
dropped), said a medical marijuana law could encourage the sale of
various things, from soil to edible marijuana products. "Each of these
different industries have the ability to create hundreds if not
thousands of jobs here in our state," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt