Pubdate: Thu, 12 Nov 2015
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2015 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154

GOVERNOR SIGNS 2 BILLS FOR MEDICAL POT USAGE

In a surprising move, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed two bills 
Wednesday to establish an "emergency medical marijuana" program for 
qualified patients, two months before the planned debut of a 
statewide program providing for medical use of the drug.

The governor's signature effectively accelerates the first 
distribution of medical marijuana in the state since the passage of a 
2014 law that added New York to a list of nearly two dozen other 
states where the drug is now available for sick patients.

Under the bills, passed earlier this year, the state Health 
Department is to set up a separate program to "create an expedited 
pathway" to qualified patients whose lack of access to the drug 
"would pose a serious risk" to their lives.

Cuomo, a Democrat, said in a statement accompanying his signatures 
that he "deeply sympathized with New Yorkers suffering from serious 
illness, and I appreciate that medical marijuana may alleviate their 
chronic pain and debilitating symptoms."

The governor did not initially embrace the bills, saying around the 
time of their passage that they would simply be reviewed.

- --- New York Times
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom