Bill Text: NY S06909 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to the content and procedure for certification by pharmacists of patients using medical cannabis; allows a pharmacist employed by a registered organization and responsible for supervising the dispensing of medical cannabis within a cannabis dispensing facility to recommend and certify patients upon consultation within such dispensing facility.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO HEALTH [S06909 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-S06909-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6909 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE May 15, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sen. SKOUFIS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health AN ACT to amend the cannabis law, in relation to certification by phar- macists of patients using medical cannabis The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 30 of the cannabis law is amended to read as 2 follows: 3 § 30. Certification of patients. 1. A patient certification may only 4 be issued if: 5 (a) the patient has a condition, which shall be specified in the 6 patient's health care record, if applicable; 7 (b) the practitioner by training or experience is qualified to treat 8 the condition; 9 (c) the patient is under the practitioner's continuing care for the 10 condition; [and] or 11 (d) in the practitioner's professional opinion and review of past 12 treatments, the patient is likely to receive therapeutic or palliative 13 benefit from the primary or adjunctive treatment with medical use of 14 cannabis for the condition. 15 2. The certification shall include: 16 (a) the name, date of birth and address of the patient; 17 (b) a statement that the patient has a condition and the patient is 18 under the practitioner's care for the condition; 19 (c) a statement attesting that [all requirements] a requirement of 20 subdivision one of this section [have] has been satisfied; 21 (d) the date; and 22 (e) the name, address, telephone number, and the signature of the 23 certifying practitioner. 24 The board may require by regulation that the certification shall be on 25 a form provided by the office. The practitioner may state in the certif- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11383-01-3S. 6909 2 1 ication that, in the practitioner's professional opinion, the patient 2 would benefit from medical cannabis only until a specified date. [The3practitioner may state in the certification that, in the practitioner's4professional opinion, the patient is terminally ill and that the certif-5ication shall not expire until the patient dies.] 6 3. In making a certification, the practitioner may consider the form 7 of medical cannabis the patient should consume, including the method of 8 consumption and any particular strain, variety, and quantity or percent- 9 age of cannabis or particular active ingredient, and appropriate dosage. 10 The practitioner may state in the certification any recommendation or 11 limitation the practitioner makes, in his or her professional opinion, 12 concerning the appropriate form or forms of medical cannabis and dosage. 13 4. Every practitioner shall make a reasonable effort to consult the 14 prescription monitoring program registry prior to making or issuing a 15 certification, for the purpose of reviewing a patient's controlled 16 substance history. For purposes of this section, a practitioner may 17 authorize a designee to consult the prescription monitoring program 18 registry on his or her behalf, provided that such designation is in 19 accordance with section thirty-three hundred forty-three-a of the public 20 health law. 21 5. The practitioner shall give the certification to the certified 22 patient, and place a copy in the patient's health care record if the 23 patient is under the practitioner's continuing care. 24 6. No practitioner shall issue a certification under this section for 25 themselves. 26 7. A registry identification card based on a certification shall not 27 expire [one year after the date the certification is signed by the prac-28titioner], except as provided for in subdivision eight of this section. 29 8. (a) If the practitioner states in the certification that, in the 30 practitioner's professional opinion, the patient would benefit from 31 medical cannabis only until a specified earlier date, then the registry 32 identification card shall expire on that date; and 33 (b) [if the practitioner states in the certification that in the prac-34titioner's professional opinion the patient is terminally ill and that35the certification shall not expire until the patient dies, then the36registry identification card shall state that the patient is terminally37ill and that the registration card shall not expire until the patient38dies; (c) if the practitioner re-issues the certification to terminate39the certification on an earlier date, then the registry identification40card shall expire on that date and shall be promptly destroyed by the41certified patient; (d) if the certification so provides, the registry42identification card shall state any recommendation or limitation by the43practitioner as to the form or forms of medical cannabis or dosage for44the certified patient; and (e) the] The board [shall] may make regu- 45 lations to implement this subdivision. 46 9. (a) A certification may be a special certification if, in addition 47 to the other requirements for a certification, the practitioner certi- 48 fies in the certification that the patient's condition is progressive 49 and degenerative or that delay in the patient's certified medical use of 50 cannabis poses a risk to the patient's life or health. 51 (b) The office shall create the form to be used for a special certif- 52 ication and shall make that form available to be downloaded from the 53 office's website. 54 10. Prior to issuing a certification a practitioner must complete, at 55 a minimum, a two-hour course as determined by the board in regulation. 56 For the purposes of this article a person's status as a practitioner isS. 6909 3 1 deemed to be a "license" for the purposes of section thirty-three 2 hundred ninety of the public health law and shall be subject to the same 3 revocation process. 4 11. Notwithstanding any other law, rule, or regulation, any pharmacist 5 employed by a registered organization and responsible for supervising 6 the dispensing of medical cannabis within a cannabis dispensing facility 7 shall be deemed an authorized practitioner able to recommend and certify 8 patients upon consultation within such dispensing facility provided that 9 such pharmacist has completed the two-hour course required by this 10 section and registered with the office. The fee for such a certif- 11 ication shall not exceed twenty-five dollars. 12 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.