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Delaware lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.<\/p>\n
The Senate Health & Social Services Committee held a hearing on the bill, sponsored by Sen. Marie Pinkney (R), on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Pinkney, who chairs the panel that approved the measure, said it \u201cbasically says that terminally ill patients\u2026have the ability to bring in their medical cannabis that they are already using at home, and they are responsible for storing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under SB 226, patients and their caregivers would be responsible for acquiring and administering medical marijuana, and it would need to be stored securely at all times in a locked container.<\/p>\n
Smoking or vaping of medical cannabis would be prohibited, so patients would need to consume it via other methods.<\/p>\n
Healthcare facility officials would need to see a copy of patients\u2019 state medical marijuana registry ID cards, and they would be required to note their use of the drug in medical records. They would also need to \u201cdevelop and disseminate written policies and procedures for the use of medical marijuana within the health care facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facilities would be able to prohibit medical marijuana use if they determine that such use would have an \u201cadverse impact on the medical care and treatment of the patient or is otherwise contraindicated.\u201d<\/p>\n
They would also be able to suspend permission to use cannabis if a federal agency such as the U.S. Department of Justice or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services takes an enforcement action against such use or \u201cissues a rule, guidance, or otherwise provides notification to health care facilities that expressly prohibits the use of medical marijuana in health care facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The right to use medical cannabis under the bill<\/a> would not apply to patients who are in the emergency department.<\/p>\n In response to another senator\u2019s concern, Pinkney agreed to hold the legislation for a vote until after she speaks with the Medical Society of Delaware about its stance on the proposal.<\/p>\n Christine O\u2019Brien, a representative of the Delaware Health Care Association, testified<\/a> in support of the legislation, saying that the group appreciated the sponsor including provisions to address \u201coperational compliance challenges\u201d presented by cannabis use in hospital settings.<\/p>\n \u201cKey safeguards were included in the bill that helped to satisfy those concerns that we raised, such as liability protections, the ability of hospital systems to discontinue participation if there is federal scrutiny and discretion of prohibit use when medical marijuana could negatively impact a patient\u2019s care,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u2014 California and a handful of other states already have laws allowing terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in healthcare facilities<\/a>. Known as \u201cRyan\u2019s Law,\u201d the legislation is partly inspired by the experience of Jim Bartell, whose son died from cancer and was initially denied access to cannabis at a California hospital.<\/p>\n The Bartells did eventually find a facility that agreed to allow the treatment, and Jim said Ryan\u2019s quality of life improved dramatically in his final days.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the invaluable last days as Ryan fought stage 4 pancreatic cancer, I first-handedly experienced the positive impact medical cannabis had on my son\u2019s well-being, as opposed to the harsh effects of opiates,\u201d Bartell said in 2021 when California\u2019s governor signed Ryan\u2019s Law. \u201cMedical cannabis is an excellent option for relieving pain and suffering in those who are terminally-ill, but most importantly it serves to provide compassion, support, and dignity to patients and their families, during their loved-ones\u2019 final days.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLooking at each other, holding Ryan\u2019s hand and telling him how much I loved him during his final moments would not have been possible without the medical cannabis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The post Delaware Lawmakers Consider Bill To Allow Medical Marijuana Use In Hospitals By Terminally Ill Patients<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Delaware lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. The Senate Health & Social Services Committee held a hearing on the bill, sponsored by Sen. Marie Pinkney (R), on Wednesday. Pinkney, who chairs the panel that approved theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":85186,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85187,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85185\/revisions\/85187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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