Thousands of new patients who suffer from chronic pain will soon be able to join the state’s medical cannabis program, following a vote Tuesday morning — after no debate — by the General Assembly’s only bipartisan committee.

Connecticut will now become the last state to allow chronic pain as a reason for a marijuana prescription among 33 states with medical pot programs.

Michelle Seagull, commissioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection, said the new afflictions could eventually double the number of participating patients to over 80,000.

The unanimous vote of the Regulation Review Committee sends the regulations to Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, where they immediately become law more than eight months after a panel of physicians recommended two new pain-related ailments to three dozen others.

The vote brings the total number of afflictions for adults to 38, while there are 10 for those under the age of 18. Many of the conditions on the list already include pain, but not generalized pain without a specified cause. [Read more at The Middletown Press]