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Medical Board considers new qualifying conditions

February 10, 2022  6866  6866   

To inform whether they should be added as qualifying conditions for Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Control Program, the State Medical Board of Ohio determined the following conditions will move forward for expert review and public comment:

• Opioid use disorder (2 petitions)

• Autism spectrum disorder

Written public comment on these conditions will be accepted February 10 – February 25, 2022. Anyone may submit their comments by emailing MedicalMarijuana@med.ohio.gov.

 Petition Process

On Wednesday, February 9, 2022, the board’s Medical Marijuana Committee met to review recently submitted petitions that asked the board to add to the list of conditions that can qualify patients to participate in Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Program. During the submission period, petitions were filed electronically through the state’s website, medicalmarijuana.ohio.gov. A petition needed to include (per Ohio Administrative Code 4731-32-05):

• The name and contact information

• Specific disease or condition requested to be added

• Information from experts who specialize in the study of the disease or condition

• Relevant medical or scientific evidence

• Consideration of whether conventional medical therapies are insufficient to treat or alleviate the disease or condition

• Evidence supporting the use of medical marijuana to treat or alleviate the disease or condition and other types of medical or scientific documentation

• Letters of support provided by physicians

 The Medical Board received 9 petitions from November 1- December 31, 2021.

4 petitions failed to meet the statutory and rule requirements for consideration by the board. These petitions were recommended for rejection by the committee.  The full board will consider the rejection recommendations at the March 9 meeting.

2 petitions failed to meet the statutory and rule requirements for consideration by the board. However, these petitions either explicitly petitioned for a condition already covered, or the petition was for a condition closely associated with a condition already covered. During the February 9 meeting, the board’s Medical Marijuana Committee determined that the petitions submitted for degenerative disc disease/chronic pain/PTSD and lupus (when pain is present) were already covered by the existing qualifying condition of pain that is either chronic or intractable.

The petitions for opioid use disorder and autism spectrum disorder will move forward for expert review since the board determined they met the requirements of new scientific information outlined in Ohio Administrative Code 4731-32-05. Petitions for autism and opioid use disorder were rejected by the board in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Next Steps

For those petitions moving forward to expert review and public comment, the experts may include physicians who specialize in the named conditions, experts who have experience with medical marijuana programs in other states, etc. Petitions for the same condition will be combined for the reviews.

The committee will review the subject matter experts’ reports, and then make a recommendation to the full board for a vote to adopt/deny the petition to add the qualifying conditions. That full board vote is expected this summer.

The Medical Board’s rules (Ohio Administrative Code) for the qualifying conditions can be found here: http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/4731-32-05.

The next condition petition window will be November 1 – December 31, 2022.