Three new ailments for medical marijuana program

weedHARTFORD — Consumer Protection Commission Jonathan A . Harris said today the agency will draft new regulations to add three afflictions to the state’s medical-marijuana program, including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Fabry Disease, and Ulcerative Colitis. The proposal to include ALS and Ulcerative Colitis were approved for inclusion in the program on April 22 by the Board of Physicians that reviews the program. The board voted 2-2, however, on Fabry Disease – a genetic disorder that causes severe muscular pain and rashes that also kills blood capillaries. Harris, as DCP commissioner, has the final say on what ailments get to join the 11 original conditions that were named in the state’s landmark 2012 medical-cannabis program. Earlier this year the DCP added regulations, which are still under review by the attorney general’s office, to add Sickle Cell Disease, Post Laminectomy Syndrome with Chronic Radiculopathy (also known as failed back surgery), and Severe Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis to the list of conditions that qualify for palliative use of medical marijuana. All new afflictions have to be reviewed and approved by the General Assembly’s Regulation Review Committee before they are added to the regulations.