Should Menstrual Cramps Qualify For NJ Medical Marijuana?

Got bad menstrual cramps? If a proposed law passes, you may be able to get medical marijuana in New Jersey.

New Jersey lawmakers have introduced legislation that would add menstrual cramps to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana patients in the Garden State.

NJ Assembly members Tim Eustace, L. Grace Spencer and Angelica Jimenez introduced the potential law on Thursday.

The bill would add dysmenorrhea - or "abdominal cramping due to uterine contractions" - to the list of conditions for which a doctor may authorize medical marijuana use, provided that the patient "is not responsive to conventional medical therapy."

Eustace stated in a news release that the bill was inspired by a line of marijuana-infused salves and extracts recently unveiled by Whoopi Goldberg and award-winning cannabis chef Maya Elisabeth, which aim to relieve female pain associated with menstrual cramps.

“By denying women in New Jersey access to a means of treating dysmenorrhea, our state fails to acknowledge the serious impact it can have on their wellness and productivity,” said Eustace (D-Bergen/Passaic). “Furthermore, from an economic standpoint, New Jersey is missing out on millions of dollars in tax revenue due to the restrictive nature of its medical marijuana law. While this will affect women directly, the financial benefit ultimately will be positive for everyone in the state.”

The possible bill wouldn’t be the first cannabis-related effort for Eustace, who also sponsored A416, legislation that would use taxes from medical marijuana sales for medical research grants.

“For much of history, medical issues that impact women have been ignored or downplayed, leaving far too many individuals to suffer in silence,” said Spencer (D-Essex). “This legislation recognizes that, in severe cases, dysmenorrhea can be a debilitating condition that has a limiting effect on women’s lives.”

“For many women, the response to pain so severe that it causes them to vomit or faint is either ‘Just deal with it,’ or a prescription drug that may not even alleviate their symptoms,” said Jimenez (D-Bergen/Hudson). “We’re talking about expanding our activity in one of the nation’s fastest-growing industries – and garnering the economic benefit that comes with that – while simultaneously expanding women’s options when it comes to doing what’s best for their health.”

The concept of treating menstrual cramps with marijuana is spreading among entrepreneurs in the burgeoning, multi-billion dollar industry. Aside from Goldberg’s recent product launch, which includes pot-infused bath salts – other treatments for menstrual cramps on the market include a cannabis-based vaginal suppository.

The concept itself is centuries-old; Queen Victoria is rumored to have used cannabis extract to treat period discomfort in the 19th century. But the recent expansion of cannabis products aimed at treating female pain may be a welcome development for some activists.

“There’s a serious lack of information around how cannabis can help female-specific health issues,” one Oregon-based marijuana user and activist wrote in a 2013 blog post. “It’s interesting to see how much research is out around issues like PTSD and other forms of anxiety, yet the health issues that disproportionately affect women are rarely talked about. This isn’t to say that women don’t also suffer from these issues, but things like premenstrual syndrome (PMS or PMDD) or menopause are hardly mentioned in relation to cannabis.”

QUALIFYING CONDITIONS

According to the New Jersey Department of Health, residents qualify for medical marijuana if they suffer from the following conditions:

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Multiple sclerosis
• Terminal cancer
• Muscular dystrophy
• Inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease
• Terminal illness, if the physician has “determined a prognosis of less than 12 months of life”

If a patient is “intolerant to conventional therapy,” the following conditions also qualify for medical marijuana:

• Seizure disorder, including epilepsy
• Intractable skeletal muscular spasticity
• Glaucoma

And if a patient’s medical treatment causes “severe or chronic pain, severe nausea or vomiting, cachexia or wasting syndrome,” patients qualify with the following conditions:

• Positive status for human immunodeficiency virus
• Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
• Cancer

Learn more about the New Jersey medical marijuana program here.

Do you think menstrual cramps should be a qualifying condition for medical marijuana in New Jersey? Take the Patch reader poll below.

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