Ohio Opens Petition Process for New Medical Marijuana Conditions
From now until the end of the year, Ohio officials will be accepting petitions from those seeking to expand the state’s medical marijuana program by increasing the number of medical conditions that qualify someone to become a legal patient.
The petitions are being accepted and considered by the State Medical Board of Ohio in conjunction with the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program – this process is legally required for the state to do.
“Upon petition, the State Medical Board of Ohio has the authority to approve and designate conditions or diseases as qualifying medical conditions for treatment with medical marijuana”, states the official website for the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program. “For the calendar year of 2020, the board will accept petitions for consideration between November 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020.”
The following conditions are already part of the program: AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cachexia, cancer, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy or another seizure disorder, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, hepatitis C, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable, Parkinson’s disease, positive status for HIV, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle cell anemia, spinal cord disease or injury, Tourette syndrome, traumatic brain injury, and ulcerative colitis.
According to the site, the petition will not be considered if:
- Received after December 31, 2020
- It seeks to add a broad category of diseases or conditions
- The condition that has been previously reviewed by the board and rejected unless new scientific research that supports the request is offered
If you are petitioning for a previously considered condition:
- Do not resubmit documents which have already been reviewed by the board
- Only new scientific research should be submitted for previously rejected petitions
- A catalogue of previously submitted research and documents can be found here
Below are the instructions for submitting a petition.
Instructions:
- All sections below are required to be completed per Ohio Administrative Code 4731-32. All text boxes are required. Applicants may type “see attached” or “previously submitted” in the required fields
- If you would like for the Medical Board to consider multiple conditions, please complete a separate submission for each one
- The maximum file size is 3 MB. Please name the files with the number used for each section below. Example: Question 1.pdf
- Please refrain from providing personal medical information as all submissions are subject to public record requests
Although this process has led to the successful additions of several medical conditions, last year many were upset that the board decided not to add autism or autism spectrum disorder to the list.
Earlier this year cachexia (wasting syndrome) was added to the list.
Medical marijuana was first legalized in Ohio in 2016.