Starting today, the Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) will begin accepting petitions to add new medical conditions to the list of covered illnesses that qualify patients for medical marijuana cards.
The petition runs for exactly one week and ends next Friday, January 31.
The state has a petition webpage that features last year's petitions, analyses, and decisions. Scroll down for instructions on how to submit a new petition for this year.
A committee headed by DHS Director Will Humble will begin reviewing petitions after January 31. Those that pass an initial screening will be sent to the University of Arizona College of Public Health for further review. Decisions must be announced no later than July 1.
Last year, DHS received petitions to accept Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Migraine Headaches as conditions for marijuana treatment. None were accepted for "lack of published data regarding the risks and benefits of using Cannabis to treat or provide relief," according to Humble's blog.
Covered conditions, which were first approved in 2011, include:
- Cancer
- Glaucoma
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
- Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
- Hepatitis C
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease)
- Crohn's Disease
- Agitation caused by Alzheimer's Disease
- A chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or the treatment for a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition that causes:
- Cachexia or wasting syndrome
- Severe and chronic pain
- Severe nausea
- Seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy
- Severe or persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis
Humble opposed the 2010 referendum in which voters approved medical marijuana, but has strictly adhered to the law.
Marijuana is provided to qualified patients in state-approved dispensaries which sell it in smokable form and in foods, particularly baked goods.
Visit the Arizona medical marijuana program website for more information, including patient, caregiver, seller, and cultivator application forms and rules.
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