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New Mexico's medical marijuana program will continue for now, although the state's new governor has made it clear she does not support the law that allows people with certain medical conditions to use the drug.
Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who took office Jan. 1, said during her campaign the state law puts state employees in the position of violating federal law and she'd like it repealed. But she's also said New Mexico has pressing budget issues, so repeal is not a priority in the 2011 legislative session.
Martinez's nominee for health secretary, Dr. Catherine Torres, would say only that the program "continues to function according to current state law." The Department of Health oversees it.
The law's sponsor, Democratic Sen. Gerry Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque, said he hopes the new administration won't push for its repeal in the future, either.
"It may be after she's been in office a while, she looks at the program and decides to just leave it alone," said Ortiz y Pino, who doesn't believe repeal would go anywhere without the governor actively pushing it.
Republican Rep. Bill Rehm of Albuquerque would like to see the law rolled back. But Rehm said while there's a chance the House would vote for repeal, he doesn't believe the Senate would.
"It's not a fight I'm going to take on this year," he said.
Rehm voted against the state's medical marijuana law because he believes there are approved medications that can be used instead. Besides, he said, "it's such a crude method of getting the drug by smoking, and we already know that smoking's bad."
New Mexico's medical cannabis law went into effect July 1, 2007. Then-Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil described it as "carefully crafted to make it a conservative, medical program" that would not lead to de facto legalization.
But that's the worry of Rehm and other lawmakers who believe the program has been opened up to too many medical conditions.
Only patients with conditions approved by the health secretary can legally use medical marijuana. New Mexico started out with seven approved conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and HIV-AIDS.
Now there are 16, plus some people in hospice care can qualify. Vigil rejected recommendations from the program's Medical Advisory Board to add seven others in 2009 and 2010.
New Mexico doctors do not prescribe medical marijuana, but rather certify that patients have one of the approved conditions and that standard treatment doesn't work for them. Patients then apply to the state, and if approved, receive a registry ID card and information on how to contact nonprofit growers licensed to supply marijuana.
Senate Republican Leader Stuart Ingle of Portales said he voted for the program as a way to help terminally ill people deal with pain. He knew dying patients who said they were helped by marijuana — then obtained illegally, he said.
"That's the way the program was sold," Ingle said.
But he and Roswell Republican Sen. Rod Adair, who also voted for the program, are troubled by its growing number of patients, which Adair said is many times the estimate legislators were given when they passed the law.
As of Jan. 27, New Mexico had 3,198 active medical cannabis patients, with nearly a third of them using it for post-traumatic stress. Some 440 people were using it for cancer.
A provision for adding new medical conditions to the program "was never intended to be liberally interpreted," said Ingle, who believes Vigil approved too many.
Adair worries "we are not stringently restricting the recipients to those who are suffering the acute pain, the insoluble pain and end-of-life pain for which the program is intended."
Vigil had said he approved conditions based on recommendations from the advisory board and scientific findings that those particular problems could be helped by medical cannabis.
Ortiz y Pino believes Vigil and his staff were cautious about opening up the program. Vigil refused, for example, to add depression as an approved condition.
"It's so tightly regulated you're not going to see here the abuses that some other states might have seen," Ortiz y Pino said.
News Hawk: MedicalNeed 420 MAGAZINE
Source:necn.com
Contact: NECN
Copyright: 2011 Network necn.com
Website:NM medical marijuana law will continue for now
Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who took office Jan. 1, said during her campaign the state law puts state employees in the position of violating federal law and she'd like it repealed. But she's also said New Mexico has pressing budget issues, so repeal is not a priority in the 2011 legislative session.
Martinez's nominee for health secretary, Dr. Catherine Torres, would say only that the program "continues to function according to current state law." The Department of Health oversees it.
The law's sponsor, Democratic Sen. Gerry Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque, said he hopes the new administration won't push for its repeal in the future, either.
"It may be after she's been in office a while, she looks at the program and decides to just leave it alone," said Ortiz y Pino, who doesn't believe repeal would go anywhere without the governor actively pushing it.
Republican Rep. Bill Rehm of Albuquerque would like to see the law rolled back. But Rehm said while there's a chance the House would vote for repeal, he doesn't believe the Senate would.
"It's not a fight I'm going to take on this year," he said.
Rehm voted against the state's medical marijuana law because he believes there are approved medications that can be used instead. Besides, he said, "it's such a crude method of getting the drug by smoking, and we already know that smoking's bad."
New Mexico's medical cannabis law went into effect July 1, 2007. Then-Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil described it as "carefully crafted to make it a conservative, medical program" that would not lead to de facto legalization.
But that's the worry of Rehm and other lawmakers who believe the program has been opened up to too many medical conditions.
Only patients with conditions approved by the health secretary can legally use medical marijuana. New Mexico started out with seven approved conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and HIV-AIDS.
Now there are 16, plus some people in hospice care can qualify. Vigil rejected recommendations from the program's Medical Advisory Board to add seven others in 2009 and 2010.
New Mexico doctors do not prescribe medical marijuana, but rather certify that patients have one of the approved conditions and that standard treatment doesn't work for them. Patients then apply to the state, and if approved, receive a registry ID card and information on how to contact nonprofit growers licensed to supply marijuana.
Senate Republican Leader Stuart Ingle of Portales said he voted for the program as a way to help terminally ill people deal with pain. He knew dying patients who said they were helped by marijuana — then obtained illegally, he said.
"That's the way the program was sold," Ingle said.
But he and Roswell Republican Sen. Rod Adair, who also voted for the program, are troubled by its growing number of patients, which Adair said is many times the estimate legislators were given when they passed the law.
As of Jan. 27, New Mexico had 3,198 active medical cannabis patients, with nearly a third of them using it for post-traumatic stress. Some 440 people were using it for cancer.
A provision for adding new medical conditions to the program "was never intended to be liberally interpreted," said Ingle, who believes Vigil approved too many.
Adair worries "we are not stringently restricting the recipients to those who are suffering the acute pain, the insoluble pain and end-of-life pain for which the program is intended."
Vigil had said he approved conditions based on recommendations from the advisory board and scientific findings that those particular problems could be helped by medical cannabis.
Ortiz y Pino believes Vigil and his staff were cautious about opening up the program. Vigil refused, for example, to add depression as an approved condition.
"It's so tightly regulated you're not going to see here the abuses that some other states might have seen," Ortiz y Pino said.
News Hawk: MedicalNeed 420 MAGAZINE
Source:necn.com
Contact: NECN
Copyright: 2011 Network necn.com
Website:NM medical marijuana law will continue for now
