ANNUAL CONFERENCE RECAP | 2018
Medical Marijuana in LTC
The use of medical marijuana is relatively new to the long term care
field, and there are various federal and state regulations that facilities
need to be aware of if medical marijuana is used for their patients.
Barbara Stegun Phair Esq. and Phillip Hammarberg Esq. presented
the New York regulations to attendees and how facilities can be
prepared to comply when using medical marijuana for residents in
their facility.
Members learned about the current New York medical marijuana
laws including the Compassionate Care Act of 2014 and the
Designated Caregiver Amendment of 2017. The permitted uses for
medical marijuana include in collaboration of treatment for cancer,
HIV, AIDS, ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Spinal Cord
Damage, Epilepsy, Neuropathy, Chronic Pain, PTSD, Inflammatory
Bowel Disease and Huntington’s Disease. Attendees heard about the
benefits for residents, how to approach treatment with patients and
what was appropriate in the facility.
Facilities can either be a designated caregiver or they need to assign
individual designated caregivers within that facility. There are rules
and regulations that come with who can be a designated caregiver,
who they can serve, how many they can serve, how they can store
and administer the drug and how they can appropriately dispose of
medical marijuana. While th