Connecticut adds two more medical conditions to its medical marijuana program

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Policymakers in the state recognize the need to allow cannabis to be used for additional ailments

Following up on a recommendation made by a panel of physicians to add two more pain-related ailments to Connecticut’s medical cannabis program, the General Assembly’s only bipartisan committee has finally approved them. This decision, made yesterday, came as a result of months of review and rewriting conditions by the state attorney general alongside the nonpartisan Legislative Commissioner’s Office.

The regulations were finally approved by the Regulation Review Committee in a quick, three-minute discussion and vote through a video conference. This means that patients suffering pain for longer than six months, as well as patients suffering from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, will be eligible to get a medical marijuana card to treat their ailments. The medical marijuana program that has existed for eight years currently has 41,292 patients and 1,270 enrolled physicians.

“I am grateful to the Board of Physicians and the Regulations Review Committee for considering these conditions so carefully,” Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle H. Seagull said in a statement. “In particular, the discussion about chronic pain has been informed and thoughtful. I am pleased that we have been able to hear from the public, and the board has been able to make recommendations that will give patients, and the medical professionals who treat them more options for care.”

Now, in order to allow these patients to officially access medical marijuana, there is one final step. The DCP needs to submit these new regulations to the Secretary of the State’s Office so that they can be posted online. This action will finalize the process and make it official.