NY: Access To Medical Marijuana May Improve

Katelyn Baker

Well-Known Member
Medical marijuana may become easier to obtain after nurse practitioners are allowed to certify patients for the drug starting Wednesday.

The state Department of Health announced that change this week as a way to improve patient access to medical cannabis therapies. That change and others have been in the works since August.

Physicians registered with New York's medical marijuana program have been the only access since dispensing of the drug began on Jan. 7. Yet only 739 physicians registered as of Nov. 7 out of 74,792 practicing in the state. There were 9,852 patients registered.

There were 18,816 nurse practitioners (all specialties) in New York as of July 1, according to state Department of Education figures. They include 347 in Orange County, 56 in Sullivan County, and 127 in Ulster County.

Adding nurse practitioners to the program may especially help patients in underserved areas of the state. As many as 20 counties, for example, have no participating physicians. There are 21 registered physicians in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster.

The health department also plans to make a public listing of all the doctors registered to refer patients to the dispensaries. The state would only list doctors willing to have their names and contact information on a public list. Only physicians have access to that list now.

In the meantime, patients looking for medical cannabis referrals can turn to marijuanadoctors.com, which lists 40 doctors in New York state. They include six in the Hudson Valley in Orange, Dutchess, Rockland and Westchester counties. The site launched in 2010 in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington State, said CEO Jason Drazin.

The site fields about 500 appointment requests per month in New York, and about the same number daily nationwide.

"This company helps create the market," Drazin said.

The state may also add chronic pain to the list of medical conditions qualifying for medical marijuana therapies by the end of the month. That's favored by Dr. Glen Kay, who runs OMNI Medical Care in the Town of Newburgh and is registered with the state program.

Kay said in an email that adding post-traumatic stress syndrome, fibromyalgia, anxiety and depression would also improve the state's program.

The health department may also allow physician assistants to certify patients for medical marijuana treatments, but they could only participate if their supervising physicians are already registered with the program.

"Authorizing nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to certify patients will only help to further strengthen the program," Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in a statement.

Other changes being considered include allowing medical marijuana dispensaries to make home deliveries. That's a nod to the distance some people need to travel. Ulster County has one of only about 14 dispensaries statewide.

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Full Article: Access To Medical Marijuana May Improve
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