Feds appear to be re-evaluating medical marijuana (commentary)

Five companies in New York will create several strains each from the marijuana plant and sell them in pill or oil form to very sick New Yorkers beginning Jan. 5. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

By Rachel Shapiro

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- When the New York State Legislature passed the Compassionate Care Act to create a medical marijuana program last year, the stringent framework limited who could access the drug, in what forms it could be sold, and where it could be sold.
All in all, it was a victory for Sen. Diane Savino, the Staten Island Democrat who sponsored the bill.
But compromises had to be made before the bill passed, making the program watertight to prevent abuse.

Some proponents of medical marijuana are holding out for legalized recreational use and aren't celebrating the plant's soon-to-be status as a tool to help sick people.

Joining about two dozen states, New York will begin allowing the plant — in pill or oil form only — to be distributed to approved patients beginning Jan. 5. Only those who suffer from one of the more than a dozen state Health Department-approved illnesses — like ALS, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson's and cancer — can get access to the drug, and only after the DOH vets and approves both the patient and his or her doctor.

Only 20 locations throughout the very large state of New York have been approved to sell the drug, with only five producers supplying those locations.

Even before the Compassionate Care Act was on the books, Savino was concerned that the highly regulated program would make it difficult to reach people who truly need it. Having just 20 locations was a compromise, and there were many other concessions.

Savino said she takes issue with the federal government keeping the plant listed on schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act. In layman's terms: it's an illegal drug.

The Obama Administration has been easy on states that have medical marijuana laws on the books, holding off on enforcing federal drug laws in those states.

The fact that marijuana is still a controlled substance irks Savino and others, who see the drug's health benefits for the very sick.

New York's program is restrictive due to the "federal government's willful ignorance about medical marijuana," the senator said recently.

But recently, Congress included in a much larger spending bill a provision that codifies what has been Obama's stance on the drug: if states have medical marijuana laws enacted, there will be no trouble from the federal government.

This prevents future administrations from reversing Obama's policy and undoing programs in half the country that allows the drug.

This is good news for the doctors, patients and marijuana providers who can participate in the program without fear of retribution from the feds.

After all, if a sovereign state can get its bicameral legislature to pass the bill and its governor to sign it into law, it's a sign that perhaps the federal government isn't best representing the will of the people it serves.

Legalizing marijuana — for medical or recreational use — is a polarizing issue. But many Americans see its value when it comes to a sick child who has dozens of seizures every day, or a cancer patient suffering in great pain.

If half the country's state lawmakers see its benefit, maybe the federal government should re-evaluate its priorities. And with this latest action, it appears it's beginning to do so.