NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9510
SPONSOR: Gottfried (MS) TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to practitioners
authorized to prescribe medical marihuana
PURPOSE:
To allow physician assistants and nurse practitioners to prescribe
medical marihuana
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Amends subdivision 12 of § 3360 of the Public Health Law to
allow physician assistants and nurse practitioners, with appropriate
training and acting within their scopes of practice, to certify a
patient for use of medical marihuana.
Section 2: Effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The medical marihuana law only allowed physicians to certify a patient
for use of medical marihuana. (It directed the Commissioner to consider
including nurse practitioners as well, but the Commissioner has not done
so.)
Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) are fully
authorized to write prescriptions for even the strongest and most
dangerous controlled substances. They play a central role in health care
delivery. They each work within legally defined scopes of practice,
which would apply under this bill. A patient in need should not be
denied access to critical medication simply because he or she is treated
by an NP or PA. This legislation also includes NPs and PAs in the train-
ing requirements currently applied to physicians who wish to prescribe
medical marihuana.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9510
IN ASSEMBLY
March 10, 2016
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GOTTFRIED, DINOWITZ, PAULIN, HEVESI, LUPARDO,
BRINDISI, COOK, HYNDMAN, ORTIZ, RUSSELL, SKARTADOS -- Multi-Sponsored
by -- M. of A. CERETTO, SEPULVEDA, SIMON -- read once and referred to
the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to practitioners
authorized to prescribe medical marihuana
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 12 of section 3360 of the public health law, as
2 added by chapter 90 of the laws of 2014, is amended to read as follows:
3 12. "Practitioner" means a practitioner who (i) is a physician, physi-
4 cian assistant or nurse practitioner, licensed or certified by New York
5 state and practicing within the state, acting within his or her lawful
6 scope of practice; (ii) [who] by training or experience is qualified to
7 treat a serious condition as defined in subdivision seven of this
8 section; and (iii) has completed a two to four hour course as determined
9 by the commissioner in regulation and registered with the department;
10 provided however, a registration shall not be denied without cause. Such
11 course may count toward board certification requirements. [The commis-
12 sioner shall consider the inclusion of nurse practitioners under this
13 title based upon considerations including access and availability. After
14 such consideration the commissioner is authorized to deem nurse practi-
15 tioners as practitioners under this title.]
16 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the amend-
17 ments to title 5-a of article 33 of the public health law made by this
18 act shall not affect the expiration and repeal of such title and shall
19 expire and be deemed repealed therewith.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13604-01-6
