What's happening
This bill broadens the definition of "serious condition" for medical marijuana eligibility, allowing greater practitioner discretion.
Why it matters
Expands patient access. by allowing medical practitioners to recommend marijuana for any severe, debilitating, or life-threatening condition—or related symptom—where they believe marijuana could help, instead of limiting eligibility to a fixed list of diseases.
Shifts decision-making power. from the state to individual healthcare providers, enabling more personalized and responsive treatment plans based on a patient's unique medical history and needs.
Removes bureaucratic delays. by eliminating the need for state agencies to periodically update or add to the list of qualifying conditions, potentially allowing patients to access treatment more quickly as new medical evidence emerges.
Reflects evolving medical standards. by acknowledging that practitioner expertise and patient circumstances should drive care decisions, not static legal definitions—potentially improving quality of care for those with complex or less common ailments.
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Who cares
Patients with severe debilitating or life-threatening conditions
The bill would replace the list of qualifying diagnoses and associated symptoms with a broader standard based on a practitioner's assessment of likely therapeutic or palliative benefit from medical marihuana.
Medical marihuana practitioners
Practitioners would assess eligibility using their professional opinion and review of past treatments, including whether medical marihuana could help a condition, symptom or treatment complication.
State Department of Health
The bill would remove the commissioner's role in adding qualifying conditions under this definition and delete the requirement to consider adding specified diagnoses.
Headline styles
Broaden Medical Marijuana Access
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
2058
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 22, 2019
Introduced by Sen. SAVINO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to the definition of a serious condition regarding the medical use of marihuana
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 7 of section 3360 of the public health law, as added by chapter 90 of the laws of 2014 and paragraph (a) as amended by chapter 273 of the laws of 2018, is amended to read as follows:
7. [(a)] "Serious condition" means[:
(i) having one of the following severe debilitating or life-threatening conditions: cancer, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies, Huntington's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, pain that degrades health and functional capability where the use of medical marihuana is an alternative to opioid use, substance use disorder, or as added by the commissioner; and
(ii) any of the following conditions where it is clinically associated with, or a complication of, a condition under this paragraph or its treatment: cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe or chronic pain; severe nausea; seizures; severe or persistent muscle spasms; or such conditions as are added by the commissioner.
(b) No later than eighteen months from the effective date of this section, the commissioner shall determine whether to add the following serious conditions: Alzheimer's, muscular dystrophy, dystonia, posttraumatic stress disorder and rheumatoid arthritis] a severe debilitating or life-threatening condition, or symptom or complication of the condition or its treatment, for which, in the practitioner's profes-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03945-01-9
S. 2058 2
sional opinion and review of past treatments, the patient is likely to receive therapeutic or palliative benefit from primary or adjunctive treatment with medical use of medical marihuana.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately, provided however, that the amendments to title 5-A of article 33 of the public health law made by section one of this act shall not affect the expiration and repeal of such title and shall expire and be deemed repealed therewith.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to the definition of a serious condition regarding the medical use of marihuana
Purpose or general idea of bill
To remove the statutory list of eligible conditions for medical marihua- na, and allow medical marijuana to be certified and used for a severe debilitating or life-threatening condition if, in the practitioner's professional opinion and review of past treatments, the patient is like- ly to receive therapeutic or palliative benefit from it.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1: - Amends the definition of "serious condition" in subdivision 7 of PHL § 3360 to include any severe debilitating or life-threatening condition, or symptom or complication of the condition or its treatment, for which, in the practitioner's professional opinion and review of past treatments, the patient is likely to receive therapeutic or palliative benefit from primary or adjunctive treatment with medical use of medical marihuana.
Section 2: Effective date: immediate.
Justification
There is no pharmaceutical product other than medical marijuana for which the State restricts its use to a limited list of medical condi- tions. The State has, in all other cases, deferred to medical profes- sionals to decide which prescriptions are appropriate in which cases for which conditions, consistent with medical training and expertise.
Administrative actions expanding the existing conditions list, as authorized by statute, have benefited patients. However, practitioners continue to have a lack of clarity about which conditions are actually covered. If they look in Public Health Law, they would find that "severe or chronic pain" is covered when associated with a limited list of certain other conditions; if they look in regulation, that "any severe debilitating pain that...degrades health and functional capability" is covered but only "where the patient has contraindications, has experi- enced intolerable side effects, or has experienced failure of one or more previously tried therapeutic options; and where there is documented medical evidence of such pain having lasted three months or more beyond onset, or the practitioner reasonably anticipates such pain to last three months or more beyond onset."
As medicine advances, it should not take acts of the Legislature or the Department to add or remove conditions. Practitioners are already required to take a 4-hour marihuana-specific course in order to recom- mend it, a requirement that does not apply to any prescription medica- tion - including schedule II controlled substances. Further restricting providers' ability to exercise professional judgment through a restricted conditions list is impractical, confusing to practitioners, and limits appropriate patient access.
Prior legislative history
2018 Session - New bill. - S7755 - referred to Health
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.