Medical Marijuana News Channel

Medical Marijuana News Channel

Friday, January 2, 2015

How Cuomo flip-flopped on a marijuana timeline















Governor Andrew Cuomo's recent request to expedite a new medical marijuana program is a direct reversal of the position he took as the state's marijuana law was being crafted.

This week, Cuomo sent a letter to the state health department in which he cited the recent deaths of two children as reason to "accelerate the process for this specific dire population."

But during negotiations over the bill earlier this year, it was Cuomo who was responsible for killing a provision that would have provided emergency access to patients in desperate need of the drug, according to Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who sponsored the Compassionate Care Act.

Cuomo, who takes pains to inoculate himself against future characterization as a liberal New York Democrat, has boasted since the introduction of New York's medical marijuana laws that it will be the most tightly regulated program in the country.

The specific provision the governor objected to would have lessened the state's control over people's access to medical marijuana by temporarily allowing licensed companies in other states to ship their products to New York for critically ill patients.

"The print of the bill just before the governor got involved did not include production or dispensing to be located in the state, and explicitly authorized, directed the health department to implement the law as rapidly as possible for patients where delay could deteriorate their condition," Gottfried, a Manhattan Democrat, told Capital Thursday night.

The federal government would still have to sign off on the transportation of medical marijuana across state lines, but the original language in the bill would have allowed a company from Colorado or New Jersey to temporarily set up shop in New York.

(Despite his recent shift on the provision, the governor has yet to ask the federal government for the requisite permission to move medical marijuana between states.)

"The governor said no," Gottfried said. "And so it was taken out."

The governor was effectively threatening to kill the bill with only a few days left until the end of session in June, and there wasn't much time for debate.

Gottfried and State Senator Diane Savino, the Independent Democrat from Staten Island who has been a leading advocate of liberalizing medical marijuana laws and sponsored the bill in the Senate, took a stab at persuading Cuomo to change his mind. But the governor stood firm, and with time running out, the provision was dropped.

Another individual involved in the negotiations confirmed that Cuomo had taken out the provision, but declined to be quoted on the record, for fear of retribution from the governor.

This was a political victory for Cuomo, who, during the bill signing at the New York Academy of Medicine, explained how important it was for government not to hurry marijuana reform, and to take a nuanced approach.

"The Department of Health will have enough time in the bill to actually get it done and get it done right and not be unduly rushed," Cuomo said at the bill signing.

On Monday, with a scandal involving his handling of the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption continuing to dominate the news cycle, Cuomo held a meeting with medical marijuana advocates and parents of sick children. On Wednesday, he sent the letter to his acting health commissioner.

During bill negotiations this spring, Cuomo and the administration limited their interaction with (and acknowledgement of) advocates who had been everpresent in the Capitol's hallways for months as they pushed for the bill's passage.

A representative of the governor's office eventually held a single meeting with them, as the legislative negotiations, which resulted in the crucial provision being stricken, were winding down.

Susan Rusinko, a 52-year-old resident of Auburn who has multiple sclerosis, was one of the medical-marijuana advocates who circulated in the halls of the Capitol pushing Cuomo and legislators to support the bill. She said if the governor agreed to a meeting with advocates sooner, he’d have seen the necessity for including some emergency-access provision in the bill, like the one that would have allowed the crossing of state lines to procure marijuana.

“I can tell you honestly that the governor did not ever meet with us, and he met Maryanne Houser and her daughter Amanda the morning that they signed the bill,” Rusinko said, referring to the mother and nine-year-old girl who posed with Cuomo in photos during the June signing of the stripped-down bill.

“None of us patients or advocates or the parents have ever actually met with Governor Cuomo," Rusinko said. "We requested a meeting."

“I think that if he actually sat down and talked with these parents of children of Dravet’s or parents of kids with multiple sclerosis, or a terminally ill woman, then maybe he would see the urgency for this," she said. "Honestly all he did was pass this off to [acting state health commissioner Dr. Howard] Zucker. He gave a lot of people a lot of hope, and he’s just passed it on and made it Dr. Zucker’s problem.”

Asked about the reason for the governor's change of heart, Cuomo's press office referred back to the letter the governor sent the health department that cited the deaths of the children, and declined to be more specific.

Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by CAPITAL
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length

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