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Connecticut lawmakers are among the latest in the U.S. to take up legislation to allow medical marijuana use by certain qualifying patients at health facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.
Members of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health convened to discuss the cannabis bill at a hearing on Monday, taking testimony from state agencies, medical institutions and more as they consider implementing a policy known as “Ryan’s law,” named after a young California medical cannabis patient who passed away.
Under the proposal, terminally ill patients could access cannabis products that could not be smoked or vaporized at health facilities such as hospitals. That would not extend to patients receiving emergency care, however.
The bill, HB 5242, also stipulates that health facilities could suspend the medical cannabis allowance if a federal agency such as the Justice Department or Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiates an enforcement action or issues guidance specifically prohibiting medical marijuana access on their premises.
Erin Gorman Kirk, Connecticut’s Cannabis Ombudsman, advised the joint committee that current policy means “a registered patient facing a terminal prognosis may be forced to abandon their legally authorized regimen the moment they are admitted to a hospital or nursing home.”
“Patients who cannot or will not tolerate opioids, or who have found in medical cannabis the only effective relief for their pain, nausea, or anxiety, are left without options simply because of where they receive care,” she said. “HB 5242 corrects this by requiring covered facilities to allow those with a terminal prognosis of one year or less, to use non-smokable cannabis forms including tinctures, edibles, and topicals.”
“HB 5242 is important, impactful, and morally necessary. It is a n ethical, commonsense bill that protects vulnerable patients who do not want opioids, who cannot tolerate them, or who have simply found in cannabis the relief and clarity that allows them to die with dignity. Medical cannabis is backed by clinical evidence, endorsed by nurses and policy analysts who work with these patients every day, and modeled on laws that are working right now in states across the country. Connecticut should not be a state that tells a dying patient: your medicine is legal, your doctor approved it, but you cannot have it here.”
The Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA), meanwhile, voiced opposition to the proposal, telling lawmakers that the bill “misapprehends several issues about the laws and regulations governing hospitals.”
“HB 5242 requires Connecticut hospitals to break the law—a law that [the Department of Public Health, or DPH] itself will need to enforce as part of the [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS] oversight system and the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) would need to enforce as part of its role overseeing controlled substances laws,” it said.
The Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities and Connecticut Center for Assisted Living (CAHCF/CCAL) also submitted testimony in opposition to the reform, advising that “compliance would place providers in a very difficult and untenable situation of trying to navigate conflicting federal and state laws.”
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Lawmakers in multiple states are advancing similar bills meant to provide patients with access to medical marijuana in health care facilities, with legislators across the U.S. making the case this week for a policy change they say is necessary to ensure patients have a full range of treatment options at their disposal.
Last week alone, Ryan’s law proposals saw action in at least four states: Colorado, Hawaii, Virginia and Washington State.
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
Kyle Jaeger is Marijuana Moment’s Sacramento-based managing editor. He’s covered drug policy for more than a decade—specializing in state and federal marijuana and psychedelics issues at publications that also include High Times, VICE and attn. In 2022, Jaeger was named Benzinga’s Cannabis Policy Reporter of the Year.
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