LARA Adds Autism and 10 conditions to Michigan Medical Marijuana Program

[Michael Komorn]

Parents and physicians have been fighting for years to get Autism added as a qualifying condition to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Program. Today Shelly Edgerton, the Director of LARA, the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs in Michigan, approved adding Autism to the list of qualifying Conditions. Adding Autism was not done willy-nilly, there was the recommendation of the physicians of the Medical Marihuana Review Panel, thousands of pages of research and nearly 100 peer-reviewed published studies on Autism and medical marijuana.

 

We wish to specifically thank all of the petitioners, researchers and physicians who drafted, researched and helped with the petitions and the people who testified at the meetings and wrote letters of support, as well as all of the petitioners from 3 years ago and all of the parents and families who came to give testimony and showed up in Lansing year after year.  You never gave up, we were ready to fight this one all the way.

 

Special thanks to :

Dwight Z the AutismDad

Jamie Cooper

Amie Carter

Josey and Dakota of https://www.sonsanddaughtersunited.org/

Dr. Christian Bogner of Oxford Recovery Center

As well as a lot of others who helped tirelessly, if you want your name listed publicly please let me know!

 

We also wish to thank those physicians (Dr. David Crocker especially) and non physician (David Brogren) on the Michigan medical marihuana review panel who spent countless hours reading all of the petitions and research and debating it in public open meetings in Lansing. 

If you want to read the petitions , or read the peer-reviewed published research that was attached to the petitions, you can do so here at http://komornlaw.com/petitions/ .

 

 

 Autism, 10 other medical issues, now qualify patients for medical marijuana

Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News Published 1:30 p.m. ET July 9, 2018 | Updated 1:35 p.m. ET July 9, 2018

 

Lansing — People with autism may now legally use medical marijuana to treat their condition under new rules approved by a Michigan regulatory agency.

Autism was one of the 11 new medical issues state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Director Shelly Edgerton approved Monday for inclusion on the list of debilitating medical conditions that can qualify someone for a medical marijuana license. Edgerton denied 11 other conditions for inclusion on the list.

The additions were based in part on “changes in state law to include marihuana-infused products, and the advancement of marihuana research, and upon the recommendation of the panel members,” Edgerton said in a statement.

The list, which significantly expands treatment options under the 2008 voter-approved law, was approved and recommended by the Medical Marihuana Review Panel in May and June after the panel received and considered public comment on the conditions.

The approval of autism as a condition that qualifies for medical marijuana marks a change for the state regulatory agency, which rejected an autism recommendation in 2015.

In May, the addition of autism won the support of Michigan’s chief medical executive, Dr. Eden Wells, who chairs the review panel and had formerly opposed the measure. Wells said medical providers have had more “knowledge and experience with entertaining alternative treatments” in the past few years.  

The new proposal also differs from the one in 2015 because it allows medical pot treatment for autism, instead of any diagnosis on the autism spectrum.

The full list of the 11 conditions Edgerton approved as qualifying conditions for medical marijuana includes arthritis, autism, chronic pain, colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, obsessive compulsive disorder, Parkinson’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, spinal cord injury, Tourette’s syndrome and ulcerative colitis.

Those conditions will be added to the list of medical issues that qualify patients for a medical marijuana license — which already includes cancer, glaucoma, hepatitis C, AIDS, post-traumatic stress disorder, Crohn’s disease, or chronic diseases that result in severe nausea, chronic pain or seizures.

Edgerton barred 11 conditions from being added to the list, including anxiety, asthma, brain injury, depression, diabetes, gastric ulcer, non-severe and non-chronic pain, organ transplant, panic attacks, schizophrenia and social anxiety disorder.

eleblanc@detroitnews.com

(517) 371-3661

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/07/09/autism-conditions-patients-medical-marijuana/768168002/ 

[Michiganmeds1982]

This is outstanding news and I cannot thank all of you enough. It's crazy to think that this really is happening. I just want what's best for my son and the s*** medicine that he's on now does nothing for him and we will soon be exploring this treatment option. Again thank you all for your hard work. The future is bright.

 

Now to find a doctor that will recommend this treatment for him as I'm not sure how to go about that maybe somebody that reads these forums can give me some advice on how to move forward.

[mishigami bear]

Thank you to everyone involved. My condition (Tourettes) was included among the 11.