What to Know
- New York State will add chronic pain as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana
- Chronic pain is the 11th ailment added to the qualifying conditions list, which includes ALS, MS, and inflammatory bowel disease
- 750 physicians and over 10,700 patients have signed up for New York state's Medical Marijuana program
New Yorkers suffering from chronic pain will be able to get relief from a natural source — the New York State Department of Health announced Thursday that the condition will be added as a qualifying ailment for medical marijuana.
The DOH will develop an amendment that includes language specifying the chronic pain conditions that would qualify for medical marijuana. Among the current ten qualifying conditions are cancer, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.
Nurse practitioners must take a Department-approved course on medical use of marijuana online and submit their certificate of course completions using the instructions provided on the Department's website.
A proposed rulemaking was published Wednesday in the New York State Register that would enable physician assistants to certify patients for medical marijuana, as long as the supervising doctor is also rgistered to certify patients.
As of last month, 750 physicians have registered for the state Medical Marijuana Program and more than 10,700 patients have been certified by their doctors, according to the Health Department.
