ALBANY, N.Y. — New York state has made a statement that will see new alterations introduced into its medical marijuana program.
According to the state’s Department of Health, the need to reach more patients with a variety of products has led them to authorize dispensaries to sell marijuana or marijuana products to other dispensaries. The announcement was made on Thursday.
New York is also expected to lift a cap on the number of products the dispensaries may sell and manufacture.
Although it is illegal to possess pot in this state, the 2014 Compassionate Care Act comes with a medical marijuana program that allows patients to obtain marijuana for medicinal use.
Patients have to be certified by their physicians in order to establish if they are suffering from specified serious conditions. To obtain approved medical marijuana products, the patients must possess a registry identification card.
The state has been involved in a process of fixing its medical marijuana program and these changes come as part of the recent plans to improve the sector.
The state is also involved in plans to authorize physician assistants and nurse practitioners to certify medical marijuana patients. In addition to this, chronic pain should be added on the list of qualifying conditions.
The NYS Department of Health is responsible for issuing certificates to nurse practitioners authorized under this system.
The idea behind this new law is to help potential medical marijuana patients have a less expensive and easier time finding a certified prescriber.
This is great news for medical marijuana patients as well as marijuana proponents and many will be hoping that the state will keep on moving in this pro-marijuana direction.
