The New Hampshire Medical Cannabis program has received an audit for inadequately issuing MMJ card holders their cards in a timely manner.
Registered card holders are expected to receive their MMJ card within 5 days of confirmation, but the new audit has stated that 98.4% of card holders waited after 13 days, which has caused many to rule that the state’s program needs a drastic overhaul.
Heather Brown, patient chair for the New Hampshire Therapeutic Cannabis program feels that a lot more needs to be done in regards to New Hampshire citizens receiving the necessary treatment.
“I think the major issue is medical accessibility in relationship to finding a provider that will actually write a recommendation for a therapeutic cannabis card. People are still running into problems with their doctors who will not write out a recommendation because of either lack of education or fear of losing financial federal support. Neither reason is a good enough reason to deny a person support when looking to take the therapeutic cannabis route instead of pharmaceuticals, or even in some cases, surgery . “
New Hampshire Medical Cannabis Is Not Taken Seriously
One major bill that would have helped New Hampshire Medical Cannabis was HB 364 permitting qualifying patients and designated caregivers to cultivate cannabis for therapeutic use.
Unfortunately for card holders and caregivers, the bill was vetoed by Governor Chris Sununu after both the house and the senate as well as the senate approved the bill, allowing it to arrive on Sununu’s desk.
Governor Sununu vetoed the bill stating:
“New Hampshire has reasonable regulations set up to ensure that our therapeutic cannabis program responsibly treats those in need while limiting the diversion of marijuana to the black market and ensuring that products meet public health standards.”
Rick Naya, one of New Hampshire’s prominent cannabis activists has this to say
“The program is a been available for 6 years and it has been taking far longer than the law requires which has been up to 20 days maximum to receive your card yet it still continues to lag behind what the law requires. “
Other ideas for future medical cannabis reform in New Hampshire would include opening up the program to outside states which would allow MMJ card holders from the surrounding areas to receive appropriate medication.
“They should also open up the state to any card holder that comes to New Hampshire or any New Hampshire patient that goes to any state in the nation to be able to use their medical cannabis card regardless of where they’re from, we certainly do not tell patients that they can’t go to a Rite Aid to get their medicine if they come from another part of the country or another part of the world it’s inhumane and totally absurd.”
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