New York State’s legal medical marijuana program has begun. Eight new dispensaries are opening around the state this week, and two are expected to open on Long Island later this month. Many doctors still aren’t eligible to prescribe marijuana to their patients.
In order to prescribe medical marijuana, doctors need to pay $249 to take a four-and-a-half hour course online from a private company called TheAnswerPage. Then, when they’re done, they have to register themselves with the state.
If doctors don’t have that qualification, they can’t just refer their patients to another doctor. Only the physician treating the patient for the qualifying medical condition can write the prescription for marijuana treatment. That’s why patient Donna Schwier is so glad her own doctor is going through the process.
"I’m so excited my physician my primary care physician is going online and taking the course," she said. "So by the end of the month things should be set."
Schwier is a medical marijuana activist in Long Island and she’s looking for medical marijuana to soothe her fibromyalgia. That’s a chronic pain condition. Schwier said her primary care physician will be able to prescribe her the medical marijuana soon, but she’s also encouraging other doctors to sign up for the course, so they can prescribe the drug to other people.
"I go to physical therapy at a facility where there are neurologists, and I heard through the grapevine one of the neurologists was into it, so what I plan on doing, my next appointment is next week, and I’m going to present them with some information," she said.
Schwier’s bringing information about how to get certified and what conditions medical marijuana can help treat.
Julie Netherland is with the Drug Policy Alliance. She said that kind of outreach is needed because a lot of doctors don’t know about the medical marijuana program.
Netherland said that’s frustrating for patients, because the small numbers of doctors make it hard for patients to find someone who will prescribe the drug, and, without that, they can’t get medicine.
According to the New York State Health Department, 162 doctors are currently registered to prescribe medical marijuana in the state. The department’s promised to provide the public with a list of the doctors who can prescribe the drug.
