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How New York Totally Screwed Up Legalizing Medical Marijuana


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https://news.vice.com/article/how-new-york-totally-screwed-up-legalizing-medical-marijuana

 

 

January 11, 2016 | 12:00 pm

Manhattan's first and only medical marijuana dispensary is like a fortress. To enter the building, located on 14th Street near the 3rd Avenue subway station, patients have to pass through two security systems before they even encounter another human. First, they flash their medical marijuana card in front of a camera. If everything looks in order, the first set of doors opens to a vestibule and then closes behind them. There, they hold their cards under an electronic scanner. If there's a problem, guards — many of them ex-cops — will escort them from the premises.

Once inside, the Columbia Care dispensary looks clean, sterile, and modern, like any upscale waiting room. But those familiar with legal pot shops in Washington, Colorado, and other states will notice that one thing is conspicuously absent: There are no pot brownies, and no jars of green buds labeled with names like Green Crack and White Widow. In fact, there's no smokeable or edible marijuana of any kind for sale.

New York state lawmakers voted to legalize marijuana for medical use in 2014, and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law last June. The new law just took effect on January 6 — but it hasn't made it any easier for sick New Yorkers to get high. Among the 23 states that now allow some form of legal weed, New York's law is among the most restrictive. Only a handful of serious conditions qualify for a prescription, and so far there are only 71 patients in the entire state. The patients are only allowed to use tinctures and oils, which can be vaporized, inhaled, or consumed orally in capsules. Smoking or growing marijuana is still strictly forbidden.

 

Advocates for the palliative use of marijuana contend that New York's law is far too narrow. While medical marijuana has become increasingly mainstream over the past decade, Keith Stroup, a DC-based attorney and founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said there's still a lingering suspicion by some lawmakers that patients just want to use the drug recreationally.

"State legislators tend to think that getting high is something to be avoided," he said. "And they're trying to avoid the appearance of someone enjoying themselves when they were meant to be taking their medicine… They don't want to see it turning into another California, where anyone can get a prescription."

New York wields considerable influence over national policy, and Stroup thinks the new law could be bad news for patients in states that have yet to legalize medical marijuana. Stroup noted that when New Jersey set a precedent by becoming the first state to prohibit patients from cultivating their own plants, Delaware, Illinois, and Washington, DC followed suit. Stroup said he expects states in the Midwest and South to follow New York's model by outlawing edibles and smoking when they eventually pass their own medical pot laws. Pennsylvania is currently finalizing a bill that includes those same tight restrictions.

 

New York's law only allows people with "severe debilitating or life threatening conditions" to obtain weed extracts. The qualifying conditions are cancer, HIV/AIDS, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, intractable spasticity from spinal cord damage, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, nerve damage, and Huntington's disease. State officials are still deciding whether to add Alzheimer's, muscular dystrophy, dystonia, PTSD, and rheumatoid arthritis to the list.

The New York Department of Health, which oversees the state's medical marijuana program, did not provide responses to questions sent by VICE News.

Karen O'Keefe, director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, pointed out that the majority of data on the palliative effects of marijuana comes from examining the effects of smoking dried buds, rather than consuming it in the forms allowed under New York's law. She also noted that pot legalization has been shown to correspond with a decline in the number of opiate overdoses, a claim supported by recent study by the RAND Corporation.

'They don't want to see it turning into another California, where anyone can get a prescription.'

"There are 6,000 rare diseases that exist in the world, and innumerable things that can cause serious pain," O'Keefe said. "Prescribing opiates to treat pain can be risky. There are 16,000 fatal overdoses from opiates every year."

In a letter sent to the New York state legislature, New York Physicians for Compassionate Care — a group that represents more than 650 doctors who support medical marijuana — stressed that numerous scientific studies have shown that smoking cannabis is generally safe and can be beneficial in some cases. The letter also voiced concern that tinctures or extracts — which have higher levels of THC, the psychoactive compound in weed — might prove too potent for patients accustomed to self-medicating by smoking.

 

There's also a price difference. Oils and tinctures require a great deal of marijuana to make just one gram, which in turn drives up the prices for patients, who will ultimately be paying out of their own pockets. Insurance companies don't cover medical marijuana, chiefly because federal law still classifies pot alongside heroin, LSD, and other hard drugs as a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning it has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

Even the few patients who do qualify and are willing to go through the hassle will have a hard time finding a doctor that can write them a prescription. Only licensed physicians whose expertise includes the conditions listed earlier can prescribe medical marijuana in New York. To do so, the doctors have to complete a special course that lasts up to four hours and costs $250.

 

 

The tight restrictions are worrying for Daniel, a 27-year-old from New York's capital Albany who asked that his last name be withheld for medical privacy reasons. When he was 14, Daniel was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a type of irritable bowel syndrome. Ten years ago, he had his large intestine removed.

In high school, Daniel smoked weed recreationally "just like everyone else." He eventually noticed that the drug helped ease his symptoms, which range from constant diarrhea to stabbing pain in his abdomen. It made him feel "more comfortable," he said, and improved his appetite.

He hasn't used marijuana in over three years, but now wants to explore the possibilities offered by the new law — he's just worried that he doesn't look or seem sufficiently sick enough to warrant a prescription.

"I don't look like have a disease," Daniel said. "Some folks look like they're literally about to die any minute. What makes me worried is that even though I can fax all of my medical records to the physician, I still worry that they think I am only doing it just so I can get high."

 

New York's law also only allows for 20 dispensaries in the entire state — one every 2,700 square miles. Eight of the 20 permitted dispensaries opened across New York last Thursday, including Columbia Care in Manhattan. The company, founded in 2012, is preparing to open three other locations in New York State. (It also has grow facilities, processing plants and dispensaries in Washington, DC and Arizona.)

But while New York's law is restrictive, medical marijuana advocates still see it as a positive move.

"It does give [New York lawmakers] an opportunity to experience the reality that medical marijuana helps a lot of seriously ill patients," Stroup said. "Once they see that it's not a scam or a trick to legalize it for the rest of us, maybe they'll come back in a year or two and improve on it."

"As weak as the law is," he added, "it's still a significant step forward."

Follow Tess Owen on Twitter: @misstessowen

 

 

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All these restrictions and end runs around scientific evidence, and still

 

THE PROHIBITIONISTS WILL NOT SAY WHY THEY ARE SO AFRAID OF MARIJUANA!

 

Obviously their fears are irrational, but they won't even acknowledge that fact.

indicates to me there may be more reasons in addition to health and healing at play.

If fearing cannabis knowledge and its supporters were able to unite in one front and change the geo political/medical face,

I'd say prohibitionists' fears could be rational, while their excuses are fed to the subjects convincing some even.

 

If they fear cannabis is potentially the anti Rx, while many profits are garnished selling Rx, Rx prohibitionists have rational fears, while their excuses are erroneous.

 

I can think of lots of rational fears the prohibitionists could be harnessing to keep cannabis at bay. I don't expect them to ever say something like "it needs to be illegal, otherwise what if private prisons go under" "what if my retirement and 401's pay less" what if me and my buddies on the force get laid off, who would hire us" "we cant have thousands of otherwise mobile people back to work and kicking their oxycontin morphine romance" "who will the Rx lawyers sue now" - all rational fears of the prohibitionists, though not often mentioned, to us, the subjects.

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All these restrictions and end runs around scientific evidence, and still

 

THE PROHIBITIONISTS WILL NOT SAY WHY THEY ARE SO AFRAID OF MARIJUANA!

 

Obviously their fears are irrational, but they won't even acknowledge that fact.

The only fear in NYS is one of not making enough money off of it.

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The only fear in NYS is one of not making enough money off of it.

That describes the Kesto cartel in Lansing.

 

Fortunately we have a Good MMJ Law. We just got to get the repubs ,Leo and the courts to see it like We the People Do.

 

Besides the economy is always manipulated in an election year. president Obama has pulled us up out of the pits and on our way back to a sustained growth.

Besides if the fknrepublicans don't have the skills to pay the bills they can always grab a shovel and start building that Wall they dream of.

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Ya, well this is describing the cartel in NYS.  It's not the party it's the cartel.  So don't forget we have to tell teh dems what we want because if they get in power they'll do the same thing as you see in NYS. That's what this is about, how DEMS can make the worst law in the country and set precedent and screw the rest of the country just as bad as the R's.  The dems are just as bad as the R's. Cuomo is responsible for childrens deaths(first one being Anna Conte) because of his want for power and money.  And he's DEFENDING the law saying it's working.

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Ya, well this is describing the cartel in NYS.  It's not the party it's the cartel.  So don't forget we have to tell teh dems what we want because if they get in power they'll do the same thing as you see in NYS. That's what this is about, how DEMS can make the worst law in the country and set precedent and screw the rest of the country just as bad as the R's.  The dems are just as bad as the R's. Cuomo is responsible for childrens deaths(first one being Anna Conte) because of his want for power and money.  And he's DEFENDING the law saying it's working.

Ever plan on going back to NY? 

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I'd love to, as soon as the problems the dems have caused are overturned. Can't have a pistol or "assault rifle" Tolls r thru the roof and the roads are as bad as here(BFLO to NYC is close to $20 toll, bridges $5, etc), school and prop taxes are double for the same value home, teh med mj law sucks, sales tax is over 9%, the gas pumps don't have a lock on them so you have to hold the handle the whole time, cigarettes are $10 a pack, yearly car inspection, gas is generally $.50 to $1 more expensive, etc. etc. etc.

 

Beautiful state though, I'd love for them to get their shiit together.  Gotta get rid of Cuomo and the NYC liberal dems though.  The ones in the country, intermixed with the republicans are the good dems.

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New York is a Beautiful State.

 

Seems like staying to fight for change would be better than bolting and bitching.

 

Michiganders are fighters.

 

We don't Quit. We don't run.

 

We work hard til the job is done.

You split up here as soon as shiit started going down.  Blaming the dispensaries, blaming the republicans.  All while the dems sat silently by and voted the same way as the r's.  Don't give me that crap.  I don't see anyone blaming it all on teh cops and judges.  "No one should go to jail for a plant but......" is the tag line around here.  It's like  football game and everyone is cheering for the dems.  The one thing I'd kill to go back to is a place where all the people realize that ALL the politicians suck(well not all but d and r have nothing to do with it). In NYS they see that.  Here it's like a football game and the dems are your team.  Anything goes wrong and you blame it on the officiating, the weather, the dispensaries, further fractioning any chance here.  At least there they are well aware that dems and reps alike are both out to screw you!  Both in their own way.

So fuk you bud, I'm spreading the word back there about decarbing, synthetic meds, THC and CBD only extracts and relative doses since the program there sucks balls(dems fault).  I'm part of a group to legalize back there and a group answering questions about medicating.  I've looked at the lab tests and helped them figure out some dispensaries are re mixing just THC and CBD, with no other cannabiniods.  I've helped them more by coming here and learning than I ever could've back there. 

 

I'm feeling quite fine with how much I've learned and been more active politically and socially the last 2+ years.  How about you?  You took a NY dem and turned him into an independent.  And now your helping an independant win in your party because the dem candidate is less trustworthy than Trump.  It seems your efforts may be leading to a zero sum game?

Edited by Norby
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You split up here as soon as shiit started going down.  Blaming the dispensaries, blaming the republicans.  All while the dems sat silently by and voted the same way as the r's.  Don't give me that crap.  I don't see anyone blaming it all on teh cops and judges.  "No one should go to jail for a plant but......" is the tag line around here.  It's like  football game and everyone is cheering for the dems.  The one thing I'd kill to go back to is a place where all the people realize that ALL the politicians suck(well not all but d and r have nothing to do with it). In NYS they see that.  Here it's like a football game and the dems are your team.  Anything goes wrong and you blame it on the officiating, the weather, the dispensaries, further fractioning any chance here.  At least there they are well aware that dems and reps alike are both out to screw you!  Both in their own way.

So fuk you bud, I'm spreading the word back there about decarbing, synthetic meds, THC and CBD only extracts and relative doses since the program there sucks balls(dems fault).  I'm part of a group to legalize back there and a group answering questions about medicating.  I've looked at the lab tests and helped them figure out some dispensaries are re mixing just THC and CBD, with no other cannabiniods.  I've helped them more by coming here and learning than I ever could've back there. 

 

I'm feeling quite fine with how much I've learned and been more active politically and socially the last 2+ years.  How about you?  You took a NY dem and turned him into an independent.  And now your helping an independant win in your party because the dem candidate is less trustworthy than Trump.  It seems your efforts may be leading to a zero sum game?

You talk like you are above us Michiganders. You are not fit to wear our shoes. We are Team Michigan and we don't need a mouthy carpetbagger to tell us about our team. 

Never forget that WE/MICHIGAN made Bernie Sanders a winner. WE did that. That's our team. Glad you could witness our team in action. 

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You talk like you are above us Michiganders. You are not fit to wear our shoes. We are Team Michigan and we don't need a mouthy carpetbagger to tell us about our team. 

Never forget that WE/MICHIGAN made Bernie Sanders a winner. WE did that. That's our team. Glad you could witness our team in action. 

We aren't in the south.  Can't be a carpetbagger.  Do you have anything of substance for what I wrote?

  If you think I think I'm above Michiganders, maybe it's because I'm trying to bring them back together while you keep trying to split them apart.

 

And, considering you don't read what I wrote, I was part of that team, I voted Bernie in by bringing my independent vote for him.  He did really good with independents taking like 70%.  Your welcome.  And no he's from my team(I's), Hillary is your team. Think of it however you want to be happy though.  See I can play divider too if you want.  I'd rather stick together and accomplish this though.  If you think I'm not "on your team" then whatever, maybe your on the wrong "team" if it's exclusionary.  Me, I'm with all the people as long as they don't try to infringe on rights.  Maybe the whole problem is that you are part of an exclusionary team, just like Trump.

Edited by Norby
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We aren't in the south.  Can't be a carpetbagger.  Do you have anything of substance for what I wrote?

  If you think I think I'm above Michiganders, maybe it's because I'm trying to bring them back together while you keep trying to split them apart.

 

And, considering you don't read what I wrote, I was part of that team, I voted Bernie in by bringing my independent vote for him.  He did really good with independents taking like 70%.  Your welcome.  And no he's from my team(I's), Hillary is your team. Think of it however you want to be happy though.  See I can play divider too if you want.  I'd rather stick together and accomplish this though.  If you think I'm not "on your team" then whatever, maybe your on the wrong "team" if it's exclusionary.  Me, I'm with all the people as long as they don't try to infringe on rights.  Maybe the whole problem is that you are part of an exclusionary team, just like Trump.

You would like that to be true because it would be easier for you to hate on me. When you are out there spreading your hate the truth doesn't matter much does it? You know I voted for Bernie but you just want to make something up to help your hateful spew to stick.  

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New York is a Beautiful State.

 

Seems like staying to fight for change would be better than bolting and bitching.

 

Michiganders are fighters.

 

We don't Quit. We don't run.

 

We work hard til the job is done.

Planning on taking a vacation to NY soon. It certainly is a beautiful state. I'm hoping to meet some nice folks in NY. Maybe buy some land there. LOL

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Any marijuana law without home growing is shite, period.

 

Any commercialization is bad. Let any commercial interest get involved in making a marijuana law and it will be shite.

 

Michigan still has one of the best Mmj laws in the country.  If people just get their heads out of the arses, this Is a fairly easy law to follow. 

 

We don't need dispensaries. We need to empower patients and their caregivers(of which the vast vast majority are patients themselves).

 

Power to the Patients!

 

 More protections. More grow rights. More transferability. More Networking. Expansion of any limits.

 

 New York can just pee off.  Legislatures never(except Rhode Island) pass a decent MMj law.  Thus why the ballot is our friend, and why Mmj laws have basically stopped, we did most states with ballot options. Now we get CBD only laws and dispensary only laws and non smokeable only laws.  It takes time.  It takes effort. 

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Norby,

If you really want to help then get your arse back to NY and help get some Bernie votes in the primary. Get out on your streets and talk to people there. Tell them now Michigan has it right. How Michigan had the balls to give the rest of the states a chance. That's what we DID. Can you match us or will you just pretend to be educating us while taking advantage of our law?

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Ha hahahaha.  Your law?  What an arse.

 

No one follows Mi.  Did you even read the article?  NY and Ca set precedence.  How many other states followed Mi?  None let you grow 12 plants and most have dispensaries.  Maybe 1 copied?

 

I am educating them back there how good of a law Mi has, except for not allowing dispensaries.  I'm educating them on what is being done wrong here, like splitting up the people over 3 ballot initiatives.  How cops and judges will still skirt and redefine the law.  On everything I learned in the last 2 years about med MJ.

 

Go back to NY?  What a warm friendly attitude you have here, even to people just across the pond.  Are you sure you aren't backing Trump?  I think you think you and I have more influence over people than what is reality.  Either that or you've just moved to shaming me to try and get me to leave Mi.  Do my words really make you that uneasy? 

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You would like that to be true because it would be easier for you to hate on me. When you are out there spreading your hate the truth doesn't matter much does it? You know I voted for Bernie but you just want to make something up to help your hateful spew to stick.  

Do you realize Bernie is an I running for the D ticket?  Hillary is the D.

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Ha hahahaha.  Your law?  What an arse.

 

No one follows Mi.  Did you even read the article?  NY and Ca set precedence.  How many other states followed Mi?  None let you grow 12 plants and most have dispensaries.  Maybe 1 copied?

 

I am educating them back there how good of a law Mi has, except for not allowing dispensaries.  I'm educating them on what is being done wrong here, like splitting up the people over 3 ballot initiatives.  How cops and judges will still skirt and redefine the law.  On everything I learned in the last 2 years about med MJ.

 

Go back to NY?  What a warm friendly attitude you have here, even to people just across the pond.  Are you sure you aren't backing Trump?  I think you think you and I have more influence over people than what is reality.  Either that or you've just moved to shaming me to try and get me to leave Mi.  Do my words really make you that uneasy? 

Walk a while in our shoes before you decide you know it all. NY is calling. You have failed there terribly and need to go back and do some real work in the real world. You came here to take advantage of us and our law. Warm and friendly isn't something you get when you come here to tinkle and moan while taking advantage of us. 

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