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Medical Board Considers New Qualifying Conditions

February 8, 2023  1633  1633   

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:

• irritable bowel syndrome

• obsessive compulsive disorder

• autism spectrum disorder

Written public comment on these conditions will be accepted February 9 – February 24, 2023. Anyone may submit their comments by emailing MedicalMarijuana@med.ohio.gov.

Petition Process

On Wednesday, February 8, 2023, 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 10 petitions from November 1- December 31, 2022.

4 petitions failed to meet the statutory and rule requirements for consideration by the board. These petitions were recommended for rejection by the committee. 

3 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.

The petitions for irritable bowel syndrome, obsessive compulsive 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 were rejected by the board in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. A petition for irritable bowel syndrome was rejected by the board in 2019.

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, 2023.