The number of health conditions that qualify Michigan residents for a medical marijuana card just increased from 11 to 22
Medical marijuana has been legal in Michigan since 2008 for a limited number of health conditions. That list just got longer.
The original approved health conditions included PTSD, cancer, HIV-AIDS, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s disease, Crohn’s disease, severe and chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures, and severe muscle spasms including those from multiple sclerosis.
Now Michigan residents can also get a medical marijuana card with a prescription for any of the following illnesses: autism, arthritis, chronic pain, colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, obsessive compulsive disorder, Parkinson’s, Rheumatoid arthritis, spinal cord injury, Tourette’s syndrome and ulcerative colitis.
Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Shelly Edgerton was in charge of deciding which conditions to approve and not approve.
Her decision came after the Medical Marijuana Review Panel, which includes several physicians, heard testimony in April from people who wanted the ailments included, and then made recommendations to the state.
Conditions Edgerton denied included anxiety, asthma, brain injury, depression, diabetes, gastric ulcer, non-severe and non-chronic pain, organ transplant, panic attacks, schizophrenia and social anxiety disorder.
There are 289,205 medical marijuana card holders in Michigan.
Recreational marijuana could become legal in Michigan if residents vote for it this November.