Hospitals in medical marijuana dilemma

To some patients, medical marijuana means the difference between having multiple seizures in a day or not having any seizures for months. 16 year old Carson Livesey needs to use medical marijuana to contain her seizures, but an upcoming hospital visit for testing has her family worried. The New York hospital is following a state law that prohibits patients from having their medical marijuana in the hospital. It could take up to a week of staying in the hospital for Carson to finish her testing, but her results will be heavily scewed if she has to stop her daily cannabis medication. Health Department officials are hoping to expand the state's medical marijuana program to possibly allow certified patients to self-administer medical marijuana, but until then hospitals are doing their best to find "therapeutic options" for it's patients in need.

Meanwhile, Livesey, the Middletown mother, said she won't have her daughter risk going without medical marijuana during a hospital stay. In the more than eight months of taking the drug, Livesey said, Carson has had two seizures, down from as many as several per day.

"...;We are developing proposed regulatory amendments," the department stated, "that would make it easier for hospitals to create policies and procedures to allow certified patients to self-administer approved medical marijuana products."

Orange Regional Medical Center spokesman Rob Lee said in an email that state law prohibits patients from having their medical marijuana while hospitalized. ORMC, he said, looks for "therapeutic options" that meet the needs of patients and their doctors