Connecticut took the controversial, historic step as of Oct. 1 to 
become the 17th state to legalize marijuana for medicinal use.                  

“We’re not advising people how to get marijuana, but it was the compassionate judgment of the General Assembly … that people who” suffer from debilitating illnesses that can be made less painful through the use of marijuana should be able to get it sooner rather than later, Rubenstein said.

THREE-STEP APPLICATION

Under Connecticut’s law, an application for a temporary registration certificate will be available online and registration will involve a three-step process. Doctors initiate the process by certifying patients, who then can go online to complete the patient portion of the application. If the physician certifies the need for a primary caregiver, the caregiver also can log in after the patient and complete the application.

One prominent advocate of medicinal marijuana, Dr. Andrew L. Salner, chief of the Department of Radiation Oncology and director of the The Helen & Harry Gray Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital, said that while he hasn’t yet certified any patients to receive medical marijuana, he wouldn’t hesitate to.

“On the one hand, I think that we really need to wait for the Department of Consumer Protection to put in place the regs … and hopefully in a matter of months, that will be ready to go,” Salner said. “But on the other hand, there are people who can benefit from it.”

“I think there right now is a bit of hesitancy from some doctors to write the certification … because they are pushing patients onto the black market,” said Erik Williams, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

But even with only part of Connecticut’s medicinal marijuana program in place, for would-be recipients, “as of Monday, when marijuana became legal for people who are certified … that changed the legal framework for them — dramatically.

“Yes, we certainly would want to see a means for production and distribution to be in place,” Williams said. But “I’d say it’s far and away the most well-crafted, regulated system out there” thus far.

The state is required to have the regulations in place by July 1, and “once accepted by the General Assembly, we can begin accepting applications” from would-be growers, said Rubenstein.

The law requires the state to have no fewer than three and no more than 10 certified growers authorized to participate in the program.

DIAGNOSIS NEEDED

Still not entirely worked out is how the price of medical marijuana will be set, Rubenstein said.

“I think the statute provides us a great regulatory latitude” and price “is something that we could consider in creating the regulations,” he said, although “my preference would be to let the market set the price.”

While he believes in the market, “our hope is that medical marijuana would be priced to cost,” Rubenstein said, adding that “black market prices are generally higher than competitive prices.”

While Connecticut’s medicinal marijuana law has been described as the most restrictive yet passed — an important detail when looking at recent federal intervention in California, where some believe medicinal marijuana has become too easy to obtain, “we’ve tried to take the best pieces of each” in crafting it, Rubenstein said.

“Looking at other states, we learned from good example and we learned from bad example,” Rubenstein said. “We’re treating this distribution system the way we would treat any controlled substance pharmaceutical manufacturing operation.”

“Our task (in Connecticut) is really different than other states,” he said. “Colorado licenses about 300 producers. Connecticut will license no more than 10.”

One thing Connecticut doesn’t allow authorized recipients to do — as have some other states, such as Maine — is grow their own, he said.

Patients also have to be a Connecticut resident at least 18 years old to obtain the drug, according to information on the website of the state Department of Consumer Protection, which regulates the drug’s use. A prison inmate cannot qualify, regardless of medical condition.

The new law prohibits use of marijuana on any bus, school bus or any moving vehicle; in the workplace; and on the grounds of any school. It also prohibits use of marijuana in any public place or in the presence of anyone under age 18.

The law also prohibits any use of palliative marijuana that endangers the health or well-being of another person, other than the patient or primary caregiver.