New York’s medical-marijuana program is slated to be up and running by January 2016. But while companies have been scrambling to show they meet the state’s criteria to grow and dispense marijuana, little has been done to give doctors the tools they need to register patients to get them the drug. Even more worrisome, many doctors say they wouldn’t recommend marijuana to their patients…
MarijuanaDoctors.com, which offers a state-by-state directory of doctors willing to recommend cannabis, has one physician practice listed in New York: A.F. Medical and Rehabilitation of Flatbush. But doctors must take a state-mandated training course before they register medical-marijuana patients. That course doesn’t exist yet. For now, the doctors at the clinic will only offer consultations…
The lack of support from physicians could have major implications for patient access. In some states, patients can go to a doctor for a diagnosis and walk away with a cannabis card. But in New York, a doctor can’t recommend a patient be registered as a medical-marijuana user unless the physician is actually treating the patient for an eligible condition under the New York law…
Many physicians surveyed by MarijuanaDoctors.com said they wouldn’t recommend cannabis, not because they didn’t believe in it, but because they were concerned about the drug’s Schedule I status, Mr. Nicolazzo said.
That designation puts it on the same level as heroin and LSD, as far as the federal government is concerned. Some doctors believe that recommending marijuana might endanger the federal compensation they receive for treating Medicaid and Medicare patients. Others said their malpractice insurance wouldn’t cover claims related to cannabis…
All Things Chronic 
New York’s medical marijuana law was designed to fail. Cuomo had to be dragged kicking and creaming into signing it and we ended up with what is (all too typically for “liberal” NY) a medical marijuana law that is a complete mess. There is something wrong in a country where someone named Clinton, Bush or Cuomo can have a chance at high office. Those names ought to make you as unelectable as someone named Hitler.
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