LA Times | by MAYA SRIKRISHNAN June 17, 2014
Since California passed the nation’s first medical marijuana bill in 1996, many states have been following suit, but some — most recently Florida and New York — still grapple with what medical marijuana legislation should look like.
New York Assemblyman Richard Gottfried introduced his first version of a medical marijuana bill the year after California passed its bill, and this week the legislation, the Compassionate Care Act, is the closest it’s come to passing the state Assembly and Senate in 18 years.
The last hurdle for the bill is Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who came out in opposition to several of the bill’s provisions. Gottfried and the New York senator sponsoring the Senate bill, Diane Savino, turned in an amended version of the bil Monday night in hopes it will be voted on before the legislative session ends Thursday.
“We’re definitely optimistic,” Jason Elan, a Savino spokesman, told the Los Angeles Times. “This is certainly the closest we’ve ever been.”
But on Central New York public radio Tuesday morning, Cuomo said that even with the amendments, he still wouldn’t sign the bill because legislators wouldn’t budge on a few issues.
“If we can address the concerns, there will be a bill,” Cuomo said. “But I’m not going to be part of a system that is just going to wreak havoc.”
One of the biggest issues is whether to prohibit the smoking of medical marijuana. Cuomo has said smoking should not be allowed.
“We reject that,” said Savino on public radio Monday. “We think we’ve done everything possible to mitigate the issue of smoking. For some patients, smoking is the only method that will provide the relief they need.”
The Compassionate Care Act would be one of the most highly regulated state medical marijuana laws if it passes.
It is an excellent first step. Florida is a very conservative state and I would’ve never believed it would’ve happened
The act would ban smoking for anyone under the age of 21, although the drug could still be administered through a vaporizer, edible form or oil. The bill would also allow patients to be administered marijuana only under the supervision of a healthcare professional — specifically, a doctor or a nurse practitioner supervised by a physician.
“The senator has always said she wanted the tightest bill and we wanted to avoid problems that other states have had,” Elan, Savino’s spokesman, said. “We think that bill, in and of itself, uses the best methods from other
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