§ 30. Certification of patients. 1. A patient certification may only
be issued if:

(a) the patient has a condition, which shall be specified in the
patient's health care record;

(b) the practitioner by training or experience is qualified to treat
the condition;

(c) the patient is under the practitioner's continuing care for the
condition; and

(d) in the practitioner's professional opinion and review of past
treatments, the patient is likely to receive therapeutic or palliative
benefit from the primary or adjunctive treatment with medical use of
cannabis for the condition.

2. The certification shall include: (a) the name, date of birth and
address of the patient; (b) a statement that the patient has a condition
and the patient is under the practitioner's care for the condition; (c)
a statement attesting that all requirements of subdivision one of this
section have been satisfied; (d) the date; and (e) the name, address,
telephone number, and the signature of the certifying practitioner. The
board may require by regulation that the certification shall be on a
form provided by the office. The practitioner may state in the
certification that, in the practitioner's professional opinion, the
patient would benefit from medical cannabis only until a specified date.
The practitioner may state in the certification that, in the
practitioner's professional opinion, the patient is terminally ill and
that the certification shall not expire until the patient dies.

3. In making a certification, the practitioner may consider the form
of medical cannabis the patient should consume, including the method of
consumption and any particular strain, variety, and quantity or
percentage of cannabis or particular active ingredient, and appropriate
dosage. The practitioner may state in the certification any
recommendation or limitation the practitioner makes, in his or her
professional opinion, concerning the appropriate form or forms of
medical cannabis and dosage.

4. Every practitioner shall consult the prescription monitoring
program registry prior to making or issuing a certification, for the
purpose of reviewing a patient's controlled substance history. For
purposes of this section, a practitioner may authorize a designee to
consult the prescription monitoring program registry on his or her
behalf, provided that such designation is in accordance with section
thirty-three hundred forty-three-a of the public health law.

5. The practitioner shall give the certification to the certified
patient, and place a copy in the patient's health care record.

6. No practitioner shall issue a certification under this section for
themselves.

7. A registry identification card based on a certification shall
expire one year after the date the certification is signed by the
practitioner, except as provided for in subdivision eight of this
section.

8. (a) If the practitioner states in the certification that, in the
practitioner's professional opinion, the patient would benefit from
medical cannabis only until a specified earlier date, then the registry
identification card shall expire on that date; (b) if the practitioner
states in the certification that in the practitioner's professional
opinion the patient is terminally ill and that the certification shall
not expire until the patient dies, then the registry identification card
shall state that the patient is terminally ill and that the registration
card shall not expire until the patient dies; (c) if the practitioner
re-issues the certification to terminate the certification on an earlier
date, then the registry identification card shall expire on that date
and shall be promptly destroyed by the certified patient; (d) if the
certification so provides, the registry identification card shall state
any recommendation or limitation by the practitioner as to the form or
forms of medical cannabis or dosage for the certified patient; and (e)
the board shall make regulations to implement this subdivision.

9. (a) A certification may be a special certification if, in addition
to the other requirements for a certification, the practitioner
certifies in the certification that the patient's condition is
progressive and degenerative or that delay in the patient's certified
medical use of cannabis poses a risk to the patient's life or health.

(b) The office shall create the form to be used for a special
certification and shall make that form available to be downloaded from
the office's website.

10. Prior to issuing a certification a practitioner must complete, at
a minimum, a two-hour course as determined by the board in regulation.
For the purposes of this article a person's status as a practitioner is
deemed to be a "license" for the purposes of section thirty-three
hundred ninety of the public health law and shall be subject to the same
revocation process.