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Saturday, January 4, 2014

New York State Is Set to Loosen Marijuana Laws

Changes in the delivery of medications in workers' compensation has become a hot issue recently. While employers and insurance companies attempt to restrict maintenance medications for pain especially, the use of medical marijuana is becoming widely adopted, and in Colorado it has been adopted for recreational use. See also the The Complex World of Workers' Compensation and Pharmaceutical Benefits. Today's post is shared from the nytimes.com. 

ALBANY — Joining a growing group of states that have loosened restrictions on marijuana, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York plans this week to announce an executive action that would allow limited use of the drug by those with serious illnesses, state officials say.

The shift by Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat who had long resisted legalizing medical marijuana, comes as other states are taking increasingly liberal positions on it — most notably Colorado, where thousands have flocked to buy the drug for recreational use since it became legal on Jan. 1.

Mr. Cuomo’s plan will be far more restrictive than the laws in Colorado or California, where medical marijuana is available to people with conditions as mild as backaches. It will allow just 20 hospitals across the state to prescribe marijuana to patients with cancer, glaucoma or other diseases that meet standards to be set by the New York State Department of Health.
While Mr. Cuomo’s measure falls well short of full legalization, it nonetheless moves New York,...
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