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
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