Medical Marijuana Use Is Extremely Limited in New York

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Despite the law finally approving medical marijuana for consumption in New York, two decades after the first state, California, did the same, things are looking iffy for potential patients. Because of multiple parties that are reticent about the drug, medical marijuana use is extremely limited in New York.

Right off the bat, the most worrisome issue is that so far, only 71 patients in the whole state of New York have signed up for the program.

This is caused by a multitude of reasons, which I will approach below.

First of all, in order to get into the program, a patient suffering from the necessary afflictions – epilepsy, cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis so far – would have to receive a certification from a medical physician that has registered with the program. And here they will encounter the first hitch.

Only 174 doctors throughout the state have registered with the program, and there are no lists of them yet. Other physicians are either too reticent or too busy to get registered.

This is because doctors in the program will have to partake in special training courses if they want to be able to prescribe medical marijuana.

If your condition is one of the few accepted, and if your physician has bothered to register with the program, it’s time for the next step – you have to apply for a state registry card, of which you can be denied for a wide array of reasons.

The third and final issue will be to be able to find an authorized dispensary. Out of the 20 dispensaries that are going to be opened state-wide, only 8 are functioning since Thursday, with the others expected to open their doors by the end of the month.

Of course, there are also other issues, but these are the most prevalent ones. Another would be that that the medication is only available in the form of oil and pills, giving serious pause to those patients that know how to dose their medicine by smoking it.

But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since trained physicians should be able to help you get a correct dosage, and it does do good things for the herb’s public image.

One New York business owner even got his products certified by the Orthodox Union, making them officially kosher.

Sure, the strict regulations do serve a purpose, as they might help take some of the stigma off of using medical cannabis; however they also impede some actually suffering American citizens from getting easier access to the medicine they require.

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