Medical Marijuana Patients Increasing In Michigan, And 5 Other Facts

[bobandtorey]

As multiple campaigns to collect signatures necessary to get a measure to legalize the use of recreational marijuana on the 2016 ballot pushes on, the demand for medical marijuana keeps growing.

In 2008, Michigan voters approved making the use of marijuana for medical purposes legal in the state.

Since then many local communities across Michigan have enacted measures that have both lessened the criminalization of the drug, while others have gone in the opposite direction to slow or block the availability of it.

But through all that, the number of patients who have registered to receive marijuana — as well as the number of caregivers licensed to provide — has grown.

Database: Medical Marijuana patients
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As part of the The Michigan Medical Marihuana Act of 2008, the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs is required to submit an annual report of the number of patients and caregivers for each county.

The dates are based on the fiscal calendar, beginning Oct. 1 and ending Sept. 31 of the following year.

Here are some takeaways from those annual reports, dating back to 2012. You can also use the searchable database at right to find out how many medical marijuana patients live in your county, and how that number has progressed since 2012. The database also has statistics on the number of caregivers/providers registered in each county in 2015.

1. Total patients have grown over the last four years, with a noticeable blip.
For the 2012 fiscal year the number of patients registered totaled 124,131 for all of Michigan. Four years later that number has risen to 182,091.

That said, between 2013 and 2014, the total number actually declined, bottoming out at 96,408 in 2014. LARA gave no official reason for that dip.

2. The northern Lower Peninsula has the highest concentration of medical marijuana patients per population.
At 42 patients per 1,000 residents, Montmorency County has the state's highest concentration of medical marijuana recipients, followed closely behind many of its neighboring counties. Kalkaska, Lake, Benzie. Roscommon, Arenac and Antrim county, all in the Northern Lower Peninsula, are in the top 10 for most patients per 1,000 residents in Michigan.

3. West Michigan sees the opposite.
Although it's not as absolute as the northern Lower Peninsula's high concentration, the largest counties in West Michigan have some of the state's fewest patients per capita.

Kent and Ottawa counties are 81st and 82nd (out of 83 counties) in terms of number of patients per 1,000 residents at 12.2 and 11.7, respectively. Kalamazoo County, with 14.2 per 1,000 residents, is 79th.

4. The more people in a community, the lower the concentration of patients 
Wayne County is the most-populated county in Michigan, and logically has the highest number of registered medical marijuana patients with 24,949.

However when adjusting for population, it has one of the lowest concentrations of patients per 1,000 residents at 14.7. That puts it at 7th fewest in the state. Neighboring Oakland County, the second most-populated county in Michigan, is only slightly higher with 15.07, for 8th fewest.

In fact, of the major counties in Michigan, only Geneesee — 4th in population — ranks in the top 10 of number of patients per 1,000 residents, at 30.3. That's 9th highest in the state.

The rest of the top 10 most-populated counties all fall in the lower half of the statewide ranking of number of patients per 1,000 residents.

5. The condition most noted in requesting the drug? Pain.
With each annual report, LARA also lists the condition provided to request access to marijuana. Every year, the predominant reason for requesting a medical marijuana card is "Severe and Chronic Pain." In 2015, more than 90 percent of the applicants listed that as their reason for need.

The only other condition to surpass 10 percent of the requests is "Severe and Persistent Muscle Spasms."

Here is the breakdown on conditions listed for receiving medical marijuana. The total percentages add up to more than 100 percent because, in many cases, patients listed multiple conditions on their application.

• Severe and Chronic pain: 92.86%
• Severe and Persistent Muscle Spasms: 23.39%
• Severe Nausea: 8.95%
• Cancer: 4.47%
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): 2.97%
• Seizures - Epilepsy: 2.12%
• Hepatitis C: 1.60%
• Glaucoma: 1.45%
• Crohn's disease: 1.11%
• Wasting Syndrome: 0.85%
• Cachexia: 0.83%
• Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV): 0.40%
• Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS): 0.38%
• Alzheimers: 0.05%
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: 0.04%
• Nail Patella:0.02%

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/michigans_medical_marijuana_pa.html