{"id":6594,"date":"2018-03-16T22:35:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T02:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcpllutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6594"},"modified":"2019-08-08T12:38:20","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:38:20","slug":"n-y-pol-seeks-to-give-veterinarians-power-to-prescribe-pot-to-pets-with-new-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6594","title":{"rendered":"N.Y. pol seeks to give veterinarians power to prescribe pot to pets with new bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

N.Y. pol seeks to give veterinarians power to prescribe pot to pets with new bill<\/h3>\n

BYGLENN BLAIN<\/a><\/p>\n

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS<\/div>\n
Updated: Friday, March 16, 2018, 10:36 PM<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

ALBANY \u2014 Medical marijuana would be going to the dogs, if a state lawmaker gets her way.<\/p>\n

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) introduced legislation this week that would give licensed veterinarians the ability to prescribe medical marijuana to animals.<\/p>\n

Paulin argued that animals suffer many of the same maladies as human patients and would likely benefit from medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

“Why not make this tool available?” she told The Daily News.<\/p>\n

Paulin\u2019s bill, which has yet to find a sponsor in the GOP-controlled Senate, was modeled after similar legislation introduced in California.<\/p>\n

The New York State Veterinary Medical Society, however, said Paulin\u2019s bill gives them paws, er, pause.<\/p>\n

Susan Wylegala, a Buffalo veterinarian and past president of the Veterinary Medical Society, said that while pet owners are increasingly asking about medical marijuana for their animals, there is not enough research about the drug\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still plenty of risks of adverse reactions,\u201d Wylegala said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t want to go ahead and start prescribing treatments that we don\u2019t have adequate information on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paulin said she hopes to meet with members of the veterinary community in the coming days to help build support.<\/p>\n

\n

In California, lawmakers are considering legislation that would require that state\u2019s Veterinary Medical Board to establish guidelines for veterinarians \u201cto discuss the use of cannabis on animal patient clients\u201d and protect state-licensed veterinarians from disciplinary action for doing so.<\/p>\n

The bill is backed by the California Veterinary Medical Association.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island), who sponsored the state law legalizing medical marijuana in New York, initially said \u201coy vey\u201d when asked about Paulin\u2019s bill but later said she was supportive of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as they don\u2019t smoke it, I am OK with it,\u201d Savino said.<\/p>\n

\n
New York launched its medical marijuana program in January 2016 with five licensed growers each operating four dispensaries at various locations across the state.<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

State law allows the drug to be used for only a handful of serious ailments and conditions, including cancer, HIV and AIDS, Lou Gehrig\u2019s, Parkinson\u2019s and Huntington\u2019s diseases, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and some spinal injuries, and post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

The program, however, has been slow to attract both patients \u2014 of the human variety \u2014 and medical practitioners willing to go through the state process required to prescribe the drug.<\/p>\n

As of March 13, there were 47,597 certified patients and 1,503 registered practitioners, according to the state Health Department.<\/p>\n

News of Paulin\u2019s bill was first reported by Politico NY.<\/p>\n

\n

Retrieved from:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/new-york\/n-y-pol-seeks-veterinarians-prescribe-pot-pets-article-1.3878823<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N.Y. pol seeks to give veterinarians power to prescribe pot to pets with new bill BYGLENN BLAIN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Friday, March 16, 2018, 10:36 PM ALBANY \u2014 Medical marijuana would be going to the dogs, if a state lawmaker gets her way. Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) introduced …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannabis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}