The list of ailments that qualify a patient to use marijuana in New Jersey doesn’t cover all the people it could help, says a panel of doctors and health professionals that studied the issue for 19 months.
Migraines, Tourette’s, and anxiety and chronic pain stemming from various maladies should be added to the current list of 13 ailments, according to the New Jersey Medicinal Marijuana Review Panel. The panel voted, 5-1, late last month to make this recommendation to the health commissioner, after listening to hours of emotional testimony at hearings, examining petitions from 68 patients and analyzing the research and statements from doctors who reported their patients had success using medical marijuana.
STATE BY STATE: New Jersey Cannabis News
“The recommendation is based only on available scientific evidence, not opinion,” said Alex Bekker, an anesthesiologist who chaired the panel. “We had lots of deliberation, lots of discussion, and it was revealing and interesting.”
The new ailments could bring an estimated 200,000 new patients into a program that now has 14,600 participants, according to medical marijuana advocates who lobbied for an expanded list.
