Is New Jersey Getting Ready to Expand Medical Marijuana Coverage?

March 23, 2016
AggregatedNews
New Jersey, Policy & Legal
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New Jersey’s health commissioner recently appointed a panel that will decide whether chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other conditions should be added to the list of a dozen ailments that qualify a patient to buy medical marijuana in the state.

Patient advocates have been pressing for nearly four years to have the list expanded, saying it is too restrictive and prevents many severely ill patients from obtaining cannabis.

The state’s medical marijuana law allows patients who suffer from multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, HIV, AIDS, cancer associated with severe or chronic pain, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease, terminal illnesses, and other conditions to buy up to two ounces of cannabis a month from a dispensary after obtaining a doctor’s approval.

Ken Wolski, executive director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey, said Tuesday that the rules adopted starting in 2011 established patients’ right to petition the panel to consider more conditions. But the state Health Department’s failure to name a panel before this month had effectively shut the door on new patients, he said. [Read more at the Philadelphia Daily News]

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