Medical Marijuana In Ohio: State Considers Expanding Coverage

Petitions have been submitted asking the Ohio Medical Board to consider allowing medical marijuana to be used in treatment for depression, autism, and opioid addiction.

Currently, 21 conditions are covered under the state's medical marijuana provisions. For two months at the end of 2018, the state's Medical Marijuana Control Program accepted petitions asking for additional conditions to be added.

The Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee will meet Feb. 7 in Columbus to discuss the petitions and adding the conditions to the program. If the petitions are properly formatted, they will be passed to experts that will evaluate the validity of the request. A decision should be made in six months.

"So many of our patients have expressed that they want more medical conditions listed," Ohio Marijuana Card President Connor Shore said when the petitioning period opened. "For example, anxiety, depression and insomnia are not among Ohio's qualifying conditions, despite being found on lists throughout other states with medical marijuana programs."

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These are the current conditions that can be treated with medical marijuana in Ohio: chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, glaucoma, fibromyalgia, Crohn's disease, intractable pain, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), epilepsy (and other seizure disorders), hepatitis C, AIDS and HIV, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Alzheimer's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord disease or injury, ulcerative colitis, traumatic brain injury, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome.

The state has received 4,964 recommendations in the Patient and Caregiver Registry for medical marijuana. Of those with a recommendation, 3,575 patients have activated their Registry Card, the Medical Marijuana Control Program announced on Dec. 31, 2018.

"We've found that many Ohioans are suffering, sometimes from a myriad of health problems," Dr. Timothy Thress said. "These patients are seriously hurting and looking for alternatives to traditional Western medicines and dangerous opioids. Marijuana is that alternative."

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