Source: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2012/ba/2012HB-05389-R000313-BA.htm
Timestamp: 2018-02-24 23:48:36
Document Index: 541142500

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 9', '§ 13', '§ 14', '§ 18', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 3', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 6', '§ 2', '§ 5', '§ 16', '§ 17', '§ 18', '§ 812']

This bill allows a licensed physician to certify an adult patient's use of marijuana after determining that the patient has a debilitating condition and could potentially benefit from the palliative use of marijuana, among other requirements. The bill lists certain medical conditions that qualify as debilitating (e. g. , cancer, AIDS or HIV, Parkinson's disease) and also allows the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) commissioner to approve additional conditions.
Among other requirements, patients seeking to use marijuana for palliative purposes under the bill must have a written certification by a physician and register with DCP. The bill provides for temporary registrations until 30 days after certain required regulations take effect. The bill allows qualifying patients and their primary caregivers to possess a combined one-month marijuana supply.
The bill creates licensing requirements for pharmacists (termed “dispensaries”) to supply the marijuana and for producers to grow it. DCP must adopt regulations setting the maximum number of dispensaries and producers (the number of producers must be at least 3 but no more than 10), providing for their licensure, and setting standards. The commissioner must set dispensary and producer fees, including a producer licensing application fee of at least $ 25,000.
The bill prohibits schools, landlords, or employers from taking certain actions against patients or caregivers if the actions are solely based on the person's status as a palliative marijuana patient or caregiver, unless the actions are required by federal law or to obtain federal funding.
Among other things, the bill also (1) requires law enforcement agencies to return marijuana or other property seized from a patient or caregiver who complies with its provisions; (2) creates misdemeanor penalties for certain lies made to law enforcement officials related to palliative marijuana use; (3) specifies that it does not require health insurers to cover the palliative use of marijuana; and (4) requires that all fees DCP collects under the bill be deposited in a separate, nonlapsing palliative marijuana administration account the bill establishes.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2012, except for the provisions (1) providing for dispensary and producer licensing (§§ 9-10), (2) creating a Board of Physicians (§ 13), (3) requiring or allowing certain regulations (§ 14), and (4) establishing the palliative marijuana administration account (§ 18), which are effective upon passage.
§ 2 – USE OF MARIJUANA FOR PALLIATIVE PURPOSES
Under the bill, “palliative use” means the acquisition and distribution, possession, use, or transportation of marijuana or related paraphernalia to alleviate the qualifying patient's symptoms or their effects. Palliative use does not include any marijuana use by someone other than a qualifying patient. “Acquisition and distribution” means the transfer of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia from the primary caregiver to the qualifying patient.
Subject to various requirements and conditions, the bill allows the palliative use of marijuana by adult patients to treat “debilitating medical conditions. ” Under the bill, debilitating conditions include cancer; glaucoma; HIV; AIDS; Parkinson's disease; multiple sclerosis; damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity; epilepsy; cachexia (emaciation often caused by cancer or cardiac diseases); wasting syndrome; Crohn's disease; posttraumatic stress disorder; and other conditions, treatments, or diseases that DCP approves through regulations, as explained below.
The bill does not allow palliative marijuana use by (1) minors, (2) people who are not state residents, or (3) inmates confined in Department of Correction correctional facilities.
Under the bill, a patient's primary caregiver is someone at least age 18, and someone other than the patient's doctor, who agrees to take responsibility for managing the patient's well-being with respect to his or her palliative use of marijuana. For purposes of the bill, someone cannot be a primary caregiver for himself or herself.
The bill limits patients to one primary caregiver at a time. It also limits caregivers to only one patient at a time, unless the caregiver and each patient have a parental, guardianship, conservatorship, or sibling relationship.
§§ 2, 4 – CERTIFICATION OF MARIJUANA USE
Under the bill, a physician may certify a patient's use of marijuana only after determining, in the physician's professional opinion, that the patient has a debilitating condition and the potential benefits of the palliative use of marijuana would likely outweigh its health risks. The certification must be in writing, signed, and dated by the physician.
The bill makes the certification valid for one year from the date it is signed. It requires the patient or the primary caregiver to destroy all usable marijuana that the patient and caregiver possess for palliative use (1) within 10 days after the certification expires or (2) at any time before that if the patient no longer wishes to possess marijuana for palliative use. The bill defines “usable marijuana” as the dried leaves and flowers of the marijuana plant, and any mixtures or preparations of it, that are appropriate for the palliative use of marijuana, but not including the plant's seeds, stalks, and roots.
§§ 3, 15 – PATIENT AND CAREGIVER REGISTRATION
The bill requires certified patients and their primary caregivers to register with DCP. DCP must issue the patient and the primary caregiver a registration certificate that, once issued, is valid for the same period as the written certification from the physician, up to one year. When registering, the patient and caregiver must give DCP information that sufficiently and personally identifies them (as DCP determines). They must also report any change in the information within five business days after it occurs.
Under the bill, registration information obtained by DCP is generally confidential and not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. But the bill requires DCP to give the following reasonable access to this information:
2. physicians and pharmacists, to provide patient care and drug therapy management and monitor controlled substances the patient obtains;
5. qualifying patients, but only with respect to information related to them or their primary caregiver; and
The bill allows qualifying patients to apply to DCP for temporary registration if they would otherwise be eligible for a registration certificate, except that regulations on licensed dispensaries, licensed producers, distribution systems, and specific amounts of marijuana have not yet taken effect (see below). They may do so from October 1, 2012 until 30 days after the regulations take effect. To apply, they must present a physician's written certification to DCP, who must grant the temporary certificate to patients who qualify. The bill requires DCP to indicate on a temporary registration certificate how much usable marijuana constitutes a one-month supply, which the patient may possess.
DCP must maintain a list of temporary registration certificates it issues. Information in the list is subject to the same confidentiality and disclosure provisions as other registration information, specified above.
Under the bill, the DCP commissioner must determine how many dispensaries are appropriate to meet the needs of the state's qualifying patients. He must adopt regulations setting the maximum number of dispensaries and providing for their licensure and standards (see below). Once the regulations take effect, the commissioner can issue dispensary licenses to licensed pharmacists who apply for a dispensary license in accordance with those regulations and who the commissioner deems qualified to acquire, possess, distribute, and dispense marijuana pursuant to the bill. The number of dispensary licenses issued cannot exceed the maximum number set by regulation.
2. indicate that only a licensed pharmacist may apply for or receive a dispensary license;
6. describe areas in the state where licensed dispensaries may not be located, after considering the law's criteria for the location of retail liquor permit premises.
1. health, safety, and security requirements for licensed dispensaries, which may include, among other things, (a) maintaining adequate control against the diversion, theft, and loss of marijuana acquired or possessed by the dispensary and (b) maintaining the knowledge, understanding, judgment, procedures, security controls, and ethics to assure optimal safety and accuracy in the distributing, dispensing, and use of palliative marijuana;
The bill also provides for DCP's licensing of producers – people with appropriate expertise in agriculture, organized to cultivate (plant, propagate, cultivate, grow, and harvest) marijuana for palliative use in the state and to sell, deliver, transport, or distribute marijuana for palliative use only to licensed dispensaries under the bill. The bill prohibits anyone who is not licensed by DCP as a producer from acting as one or representing that he or she is a licensed producer.
The bill's provisions for producers are in many ways similar to its provisions for dispensaries, although there are some notable differences. The DCP commissioner must determine how many producers are appropriate to meet the needs of the state's qualifying patients. He must adopt regulations (1) providing for producer licensure, standards, and locations and (2) specifying the maximum number of licenses, which must be at least three but no more than 10. After the regulations are effective, the commissioner can issue producer licenses (up to 10) to applicants who apply in accordance with the regulations and who he deems qualified to cultivate marijuana and sell, deliver, transport, or distribute marijuana solely within the state pursuant to the bill.
5. designate permissible locations for licensed producers, and prohibit these producers from cultivating marijuana for palliative use outside of the state;
8. establish standards and procedures for license revocation, suspension, summary suspension, and nonrenewal, that comply with the UAPA's standards for such actions; and
9. establish other licensing, renewal, and operational standards the commissioner deems necessary.
§§ 2,-6, 11-12, 15 – PROTECTIONS FROM PUNISHMENT RELATED TO PALLIATIVE MARIJUANA USE
The bill prohibits qualifying patients, their caregivers or doctors, or marijuana dispensaries or producers from being arrested, prosecuted, otherwise penalized, including being subject to civil penalties, or denied any right or privilege, including being disciplined by a professional licensing board, for taking specified actions related to the palliative use of marijuana. The particular requirements for each group are explained below.
§§ 2, 15 – Qualifying Patients
1. a physician diagnoses the patient with a debilitating condition;
2. the patient's physician has issued a written certification for the patient's palliative use of marijuana after prescribing, or determining it is against the patient's best interest to prescribe, prescription drugs to address the symptoms or effects the marijuana is supposed to treat; and
3. the combined amount of marijuana possessed by the patient and his or her primary caregiver for palliative use does not exceed a usable amount reasonably necessary to ensure a one-month supply, as DCP determines through regulation.
The protection against such punishments or actions does not apply if a patient's palliative use of marijuana endangers someone else's health or well-being. The protection also does not apply if the patient ingests marijuana:
1. on a motor bus or school bus, or in any moving vehicle;
4. at a public beach, park, recreation or youth center, or any other area that is used or held out for use by the public whether owned or operated for public or private interests; or
§§ 6, 15 – Physicians
2. explained the potential risks and benefits of using marijuana for palliative purposes to the patient and the parent, guardian, or legal custodian of such a patient who lacks legal capacity;
The bill specifies that these protections do not apply to physician assistants.
§§ 2, 15 – Primary Caregivers
The bill protects registered primary caregivers from the punishments or penalties specified above for acquiring, distributing, possessing, or transporting marijuana or related paraphernalia for a qualifying patient. For this protection to apply, the amount of marijuana, along with the combined usable amount the patient and caregiver possess, cannot exceed a reasonably necessary one-month supply in accordance with DCP regulations adopted under the bill. The protection also does not apply if the marijuana was obtained from a source other than a state-licensed dispensary. The protection against punishment for distribution applies only when the drug or paraphernalia is transferred from the caregiver to the patient.
The bill protects licensed dispensaries from the actions or penalties specified above for acquiring, possessing, distributing, or dispensing marijuana pursuant to the bill. But they are subject to arrest, prosecution, or civil or criminal penalties under state law for:
3. obtaining or transporting marijuana outside of the state in violation of federal law.
The bill protects licensed producers from the actions or penalties specified above for cultivating marijuana or selling, delivering, transporting, or distributing it to licensed dispensaries. They are subject to arrest, prosecution, or civil or criminal penalties under state law for (1) selling, delivering, transporting, or distributing marijuana to someone who is not a licensed dispensary or (2) obtaining or transporting marijuana outside of the state in violation of federal law.
§§ 5, 7 – CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
The bill permits qualifying patients and primary caregivers who comply with its requirements to assert that compliance as an affirmative defense to any state prosecution involving marijuana or related paraphernalia. It prohibits anyone from being arrested or prosecuted solely for being present or in the vicinity of the palliative use of marijuana permitted by the bill.
The bill makes it a class C misdemeanor to lie to a law enforcement official about acquiring, distributing, possessing, using, or transporting marijuana or related paraphernalia for palliative use for the purpose of avoiding arrest or prosecution for any crime. It makes it a class A misdemeanor for someone to lie to a law enforcement official about the issuance, contents, or validity of a (1) written certification for palliative use or (2) document purporting to be a written certification.
In addition to the other required regulations specified above, the bill requires the DCP commissioner to adopt regulations to implement the bill's provisions permitting the palliative use of marijuana. The regulations must at least:
3. identify criteria and set procedures for adopting regulations to add additional medical conditions, treatments, or diseases to the list of debilitating conditions that qualify for the palliative use of marijuana; the procedures must include a petition process and allow for public comment and public hearings before the physician board;
4. add medical conditions, treatments, or diseases to the list of debilitating conditions, as the physician board recommends; and
5. develop a system for distributing marijuana for palliative use that provides for (a) marijuana production facilities on secured grounds in the state and operated by licensed producers and (b) distribution to qualifying patients or their primary caregivers by licensed dispensaries.
The commissioner must also adopt regulations establishing a reasonable fee to charge qualifying patients with written certifications to offset the direct and indirect costs of administering the bill. This fee is in addition to any registration fee. The commissioner must collect this fee when qualifying patients register with DCP, and must remit the fees to the state treasurer, to be credited to the account established by the bill.
§ 16 – PROHIBITION ON DISCRIMINATION OR DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS BY SCHOOLS, LANDLORDS, OR EMPLOYERS
3. an employer with at least one employee, including the state or its political subdivisions, (a) refusing to hire someone or (b) firing, penalizing, or threatening an employee.
§ 17 – RECLASSIFICATION OF MARIJUANA AS SCHEDULE II CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE
§ 18 – PALLIATIVE MARIJUANA ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNT
The bill establishes a separate, nonlapsing palliative marijuana administration account in the General Fund. The account consists of the various fees DCP collects under the bill, as specified above; investment earnings; and any other moneys the law requires to be deposited in it. The account can only be used to provide funds to DCP for palliative marijuana administration. Any money remaining in the account at the end of a fiscal year must be carried forward to the next fiscal year.
Federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance. The law generally prohibits anyone from knowingly or intentionally manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, or possessing with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense Schedule I drugs. Licensed practitioners, including pharmacies, can use Schedule I substances in government-approved research projects. The penalty for violations varies depending on the amount of drugs involved (21 U. S. C. §§ 812, 823, and 841(a)(1)).