N.J. Medical Marijuana Panel Says ‘Chronic Pain,’ Anxiety Should Qualify For Pot

New Jersey took a big step towards approving several new conditions for medical marijuana on Thursday during a meeting of the state’s Medicinal Marijuana Review Panel in Trenton.

The panel voted that patients should be allowed to use medical marijuana if they suffer from “chronic pain” in connection with muscular skeletal disorders, as well as other conditions such as anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome and Tourette syndrome, NJ.com reported.

The panel voted against recommending that asthma and chronic fatigue qualify for medical marijuana, the report said.

Before the conditions officially qualify for medical marijuana in New Jersey, they are subject to a public hearing and approval from the New Jersey Health Commissioner.

Currently, patients with the following medical conditions may be eligible to receive medical marijuana in New Jersey:

• 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)
• Seizure disorder, including epilepsy
• Intractable skeletal muscular spasticity
• Glaucoma
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Positive status for human immunodeficiency virus
• Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
• Cancer

However, New Jersey medical marijuana and cannabis advocates have been pushing to expand the list of qualifying conditions in a state that has been widely criticized for a lack of dispensary locations and shortages of both marijuana and doctors willing to prescribe it.

Earlier this year, a group of New Jersey residents claimed that smoking weed helps relieve symptoms from a variety of diseases – including migraines, arthritis, autism, depression and Alzheimer’s – in a series of petitions aimed at increasing the number of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana in the Garden State.

Their pleas were sent to the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH), which announced in July that it was seeking petitions for additional medical conditions that could possibly receive legal aegis under the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

• See related article: New Jersey Activists Fight To Expand Medical Marijuana Program
• See related article: Should Menstrual Cramps Qualify For NJ Medical Marijuana?

Learn more about the New Jersey medical marijuana program and see a list of frequently asked questions for potential patients here.

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