Is a robust statewide medical marijuana program a pipe dream?

For a state that’s supposed to be a standard bearer of progressive policies, New York’s drug policies are firmly stuck in the mud.

The much-ballyhooed rollout of the state’s first medical marijuana program began on Thursday, but questions remain about the accessibility of the eight dispensaries around the state and whether it makes sense to limit the program to capsules, vapor, tinctures and oils, as opposed to the smokable plant.

To the former point, an August op-ed by New York City Councilman Mark Levine published in City & State noted that the Compassionate Care Act has an “absurd” rule – that all medical marijuana facilities be at least 1,000 feet from a school or house of worship. This rule is purely aesthetic, and is the primary reason why the only dispensary in the five boroughs is located on the border of the East Village.

For residents of the outer boroughs who qualify for the program, the location is a major inconvenience. It would take over an hour for a medical marijuana patient living in Jamaica, Queens, to get to the dispensary on East 14th Street. It also limits the profitability of the dispensaries if patients who require the drug decide it’s not worth making the trek to acquire their prescription.  

All the more ridiculous, as Levine notes, is that the minimum distance for liquor stores from schools or houses of worship is 200 feet, emblematic of the popular dissonance regarding the dangers of alcohol consumption versus marijuana.

And limiting the program to non-smokable versions of the cannabis plant is needlessly complicated. The Village Voice published an article in October pointing out that not only does it create potential problems for patients who would have to purchase expensive vaporizers, but many doctors lack the knowledge base of a drug that for so long carried the stigma of prohibition.

The Department of Health offers an educational course to get physicians up to speed, but there are complexities to administering medical marijuana that certainly can’t be distilled into a four-hour class.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has always been reluctant to move forward with a statewide medical marijuana program, and the Compassionate Care Act includes the caveat that he can pull the plug on it at any time. That would appear to give him an easy out if the dispensaries cannot sustain profits and program enrollment comes in lower than expected. Perhaps Cuomo’s newfound progressive spirit will extend to expanding the program so that it can truly serve New Yorkers in need.