Connecticut regulator OKs more medical cannabis conditions

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Medical marijuana dispensaries in Connecticut could see a boost in patient counts in the next year after the Department of Consumer Protection agreed to make three more conditions eligible for MMJ treatment.

The DCP commissioner notified the Board of Physicians she will follow the panel’s recommendation to add hydrocephalus (water on the brain) with intractable headache; intractable migraines, and trigeminal neuralgia (chronic pain in the nerve that carries sensation from a person’s face to the brain) as qualifying conditions. The decision applies only to adult patients.

The physicians panel didn’t recommend adding anxiety disorders and Menieres Disease (a cause of vertigo).

There will be another public hearing on the three new qualifying conditions after the DCP drafts regulations. Those rules will then be reviewed by the attorney general’s office and sent to the legislature’s Regulation Review Committee for approval. The entire process could last up to a year, according to the Hartford Courant.

Connecticut’s MMJ program currently lists 22 qualifying conditions for adults and six for patients under 18.

With 15,000-plus registered patients, the state’s program is on the rise. And continued expansion of qualifying conditions could lead to even more growth.

– Associated Press