State officials say they’ve received a handful of requests to add more medical conditions to the list that qualify for medical marijuana as the July 31st deadline approaches. Spokesman Mike Schommer says the state Health Department will then examine scientific evidence on whether medical cannabis benefits those particular conditions. He says, “The commissioner reviews that material, consults with a number of folks, and then typically around the beginning of December there’ll be announcement about what he’s decided in terms of which of the petitions or which of the new conditions will be added.” If there’s no objection from the legislature, the additions will be made to the list in August 2018. This August 1st, post-traumatic stress disorder will become a qualifying condition for medical cannabis. Last year intractable pain was added to the initial list of nine conditions that the legislature approved.
State officials aren’t yet releasing *which* medical conditions people have petitioned to add to the list of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis. Schommer says that will likely happen in December, as it did last year. He says, “When we announced that we were adding PTSD, we also announced the other conditions that had been reviewed…. There was schizophrenia, depression, a number of other things that were looked at, and ultimately the commissioner went with PTSD.”