NY: Bill To Allow Emergency Access to Medical Cannabis

New York: Allow Emergency Access to Medical Cannabis!

New York legislators have introduced a bill to require the Commissioner of Health to establish emergency access to medical cannabis programs and to provide medical cannabis for patients whose serious condition is progressive and degenerative or patients for whom a delay in access to medical cannabis would pose a serious risk to the patient's life or health, before the implementation of the State's medical cannabis program, which is not expected to be operational until January 2016 or later.

The Compassionate Care Act originally contained a provision to allow emergency access to medical cannabis in New Yrok, which was removed by Governor Cuomo in the negotiations leading to its passage.  Since then, three young girls have died from being denied expedited access to the medicine they needed and many families with children who need access to medical cannabis have left New York State.

Look up your senators contact information here and assemblymembers contact info here.

Below you will find a simple script to guide you through a call and a sample letter for you to email or mail. Call to Senator/Assemblymember's office:

Hello, I am a constituent of the [Senator OR Assemblymember] and  my name is [Your Name] and I live at [Your Address or zip-code] and I would like to leave a message for the [Senator OR Assemblymember].

I would like to urge they support Senate Bill 5086 and Assembly Bill 7060, which would require the Commissioner of Health to establish a program to provide emergency access to medical cannabis for patients who can't wait for a robust program to be operational.

Thank you for your time, have a nice day.

You can use this text, or modify as you see fit, and mail / email it to them to show your support for the sick and dying patients in this state by allowing emergency access to medical cannabis.

Letter to Senator/Assemblymember text:

Subject:

Allow New Yorkers with Progressive and Degenerative Serious Conditions Emergency Access to Marijuana

Body:

Dear Honorable [Senator OR Assemblymember] [Rep's Last Name here]

I'm urging you to support Senate Bill 5086 and Assembly Bill 7060, which would require the Commissioner of Health to establish a program to provide emergency access to medical cannabis for patients whose serious condition is progressive and degenerative or for whom delay in the patient's certified medical use of cannabis poses a serious risk to the patient's life or health, before the implementation of the State's medical marijuana program, which is not expected to be operational until January 2016 or later.

The Compassionate Care Act originally contained an emergency access provision, which was removed by Governor Cuomo and Senator Skelos in the negotiations leading to its passage.  Since then, three young girls have died from not being able to access the medicine they needed.

Whether or not you supported the Compassionate Care Act, I encourage you to support Senate Bill 5086 and Assembly Bill 7060, because the most critically ill New Yorkers can’t wait until next year for their medicine.

Best Wishes, [Your Name Here] [Your Address/Zip code here]

Action Alert: NY Emergency Access bill Assembly health committee vote for emergency access to medicinal cannabis [4/28/15]

Action Alert for the NY Emergency Access bill

Assembly Member Richard N. Gottfried's NY Emergency Access bill to create an emergency access program for patients with the most urgent needs is getting voted on by Assembly Health Committee TODAY. let's get it passed and force the Senate and Gov. Cuomo to act!

How to help:

1. Call Speaker Carl Heastie at (518) 455-4800 and ask him to bring the NY Emergency Access bill to a floor vote as soon as possible.

2. Call your Assembly member (if you don't know who that is, go to http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/search/) at his or her Albany office and ask him or her to support A. 7060, the emergency medical marihuana program bill;

Sample Script: Please note - You will get a live person when calling within normal business hours. " Hi, My name is _______ ______, I am a NYS Resident.

I would like to leave a message for Speaker Heastie and my support for A. 7060, a bill to provide Emergency Access to medical marijuana.

I want to urge the speaker to support the NY Emergency Access bill and bring it to the floor for a full vote. Thank you for your time, have a nice day!"

Remember: Be polite, care and share!

Compassionate Care Act advances in NY Senate! What's next?

Compassionate Care Act advances in NY Senate!

Editors note: This action alert is from 2014 and no longer active The Compassionate Care Act passed the Senate Health Committee this week by a 9-8 vote with Republican Senator William Larkin casting the deciding vote. Now Medical Marijuana passed through the Health Committee for the first time sense 2009 it is now on to the Senate Finance Committee.

The Senate Finance Committee is made up for 37 seats including 20 republicans and 17 democrats. We need at minimum 19 votes to pass this bill. The people of New York NEED to put more pressure on the Senate Finance Committee to make sure we have enough vote to pass it through.

The Senate Finance Committee Chair, Senator DeFrancisco, said is a statement on Friday that he is relinquishing himself from responsibility of having to call the bill to a vote, instead he is leaving it up to Senate Leadership "If the two leaders want it on the agenda, it will go on the agenda." One of the two, Senator Klein, is a co-sponsor of the Compassionate Care Act, so he would want it to come to a vote naturally. One can only assume because of that what Senator DeFrancisco really meant was if the Republican half of the Senate leadership, Senator Skelos, wants it to be on the agenda, it will be on the agenda. 

The Compassionate Care Act NEEDS to get on the agenda, NOW!  We have until June 19th to pass this through the Senate Finance Committee, The Senate Rules Committee, The Senate Floor and then the governor can sign it into law.

If you're asking yourself what you can do to help pass the Compassionate Care Act, ask no further and read below.

Step 1:

Call Senator Skelos' office  (518) 455-3171 and read off this simple script

--------Script---------

Hi, my name is (Your Name), My zip code is (Zip code) and I would like to ask Senator Skelos to support the Compassionate Care Act and ask Senator DeFrancisco to bring it to a vote in the Finance Committee. Thanks, Have a nice day!

Step 2:

Call the Senate Finance Committee members office's(see list below), asking each and every one of them to support the compassionate care act.

--------Script---------

Hi, my name is (Your Name), My zip code is (Zip code) and I want to urge the Senator to support medical marijuana and to vote for the Compassionate Care Act. Thank you and have a nice day!

Senator	Party	Phone	Email
Chair: John A. DeFrancisco	R	(518)-455-3511	jdefranc@nysenate.gov
Hugh T. Farley	R	(518)-885-1829	Farley@nysenate.gov
John J. Flanagan	R	(518)-455-2071	flanagan@nysenate.gov
Martin J. Golden	R	(518)-455-2730	golden@nysenate.gov
Joseph A. Griffo	R	(518)-455-3334	griffo@nysenate.gov
Kemp Hannon	R	(518)-455-2200	hannon@nysenate.gov
Andrew J Lanza	R	(518)-455-3215	lanza@senate.state.ny.us
Kenneth P. LaValle	R	(518)-455-3121	lavalle@nysenate.gov
Betty Little	R	(518)-455-2811	little@nysenate.gov
Carl L Marcellino	R	(518)-455-2390	marcelli@senate.state.ny.us
Jack M. Martins	R	(518)-455-3265	martins@nysenate.gov
Michael F. Nozzolio	R	(518)-455-2366	nozzolio@nysenate.gov
Thomas F. O'Mara	R	(518)-455-2091	omara@nysenate.gov
Michael H. Ranzenhofer	R	(518)-455-3161	ranz@senate.state.ny.us
James L. Seward	R	(518)-455-3131	seward@nysenate.gov
Catharine Young	R	(518)-455-3563	cyoung@senate.state.ny.us
Mark Grisanti	R	(518)-455-3240	grisanti@nysenate.gov
Ruben Diaz	D	(518)-455-2511	diaz@nysenate.gov
Daniel L. Squadron	D	(518)-455-2625	squadron@nysenate.gov
Toby Ann Stavisky	D	(518)-455-3461	stavisky@nysenate.gov
Neil D. Breslin	D	(518)-455-2225	breslin@senate.state.ny.us
Timothy M. Kennedy	D	(518)-455-2426	kennedy@nysenate.gov
David J. Valesky	D	(518)-455-2838	valesky@nysenate.gov
Adriano Espaillat	D	(518)-455-2041	espailla@nysenate.gov
Kevin S. Parker	D	(518)-455-2580	parker@senate.state.ny.us
Bill Perkins	D	(518)-455-2441	perkins@senate.state.ny.us
Martin Malavé Dilan	D	(518)-455-2177	dilan@nysenate.gov
Michael Gianaris	D	(518)-455-3486	gianaris@nysenate.gov
Ruth Hassell-Thompson	D	(518)-455-2061	hassellt@senate.state.ny.us
Velmanette Montgomery	D	(518)-455-3451	montgome@nysenate.gov
Gustavo Rivera	D	(518)-455-3395	grivera@nysenate.gov
Jose Peralta	D	(518)-455-2529	jperalta@nysenate.gov
John J. Bonacic	R	(518)-455-3181	bonacic@nysenate.gov
Liz Krueger	D	(518)-455-2297	lkrueger@senate.state.ny.us
William J. Larkin Jr.	R	(518)-455-2770	larkin@senate.state.ny.us
Joseph E. Robach	R	(518)-455-2909	robach@nysenate.gov
Diane J. Savino	D	(518)-455-2437	savino@senate.state.ny.us

If you're unable to or don't want to make phone call's you can goto our action alerts on www.norml.org/act and email your senator with a pre-written email!