In an attempt to help people who struggle daily with chronic pain, a state regulatory committee recently added it as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana.
“A lot of people live with pain,” said Dr. Andrew Salner, director of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital and a member of the state Medical Marijuana Board of Physicians. “We realized there are thousands of conditions that have pain associated with them and there’s no way we, as a board or the program, could think of and approve all of those conditions individually and separately.”
The group met virtually to discuss the addition of chronic pain to the list of 37 other conditions meriting medical marijuana prescriptions, and eventually voted unanimously in favor of the move. Connecticut’s Medical Marijuana Program is among the most regulated state programs in the nation.
“I am pleased that we have been able to hear from the public, and the board has been able to make recommendations that will give patients, and the medical professionals who treat them, more options for care,” said Michelle Seagull, a commissioner with the state Department of Consumer Protection which oversees the program.
The expansion of the program is anticipated to enable thousands more people to be certified by specialists like Dr. Salner to legally buy medical marijuana in Connecticut.
“Our best guess is there may, indeed, be twice the number a year from now,” Dr. Salner said of those people participating in the program. “The program may grow that rapidly as a result of this new qualifying condition.”
To qualify for medical marijuana as a means for managing chronic pain, a person must have a diagnosis that is more than six months old and the pain must be associated with an underlying condition.
“(This is) not somebody who was jogging and pulled a muscle,” Dr. Salner said of those qualifying for prescriptions. “It’s somebody who has persistent pain that hasn’t responded well to other medications.”
For more information on help at Hartford HealthCare for chronic pain, click here.
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