Ohio adds 3 new qualifying medical marijuana conditions

Three new qualifying medical marijuana conditions were approved Wednesday, bringing the list to 25.

The Ohio State Medical Board approved Huntington's disease, terminal illness and spasticity to the list. They join a list that includes HIV/AIDS, cancer and chronic pain.

Huntington's disease is a rare brain disease that is inherited. It causes the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. Huntington's disease has a broad impact on a person's functional abilities and usually results in movement, thinking (cognitive) and psychiatric disorders. With spasticity or severe muscle spasms, a person's muscles stiffen or tighten and can't be stretched. This can affect movement and speech., or muscle spasms,

The board voted to reject petitions to add autism spectrum disorder, restless leg syndrome, panic disorder with agoraphobia and spasms.

Each year, the board accepts petitions from the public for new conditions. received 30 petitions to add new conditions. Submissions must include evidence cannabis can be used to treat or alleviate the disease or condition and letters of support from physicians. Before Wednesday, the board had added just one condition through the process so far, approving cachexia, or wasting syndrome, in 2020.

Last month, a board committee agreed that three other conditions proposed in petitions already fell under existing conditions: arthritis, chronic migraines and complex regional pain syndrome.

In order to get a medical marijuana card, patients must meet one of the qualifying medical conditions and have a recommendation from a state-certified doctor. Doctors are required to have a "bona fide" physician-patient relationship with the patient and are expected to provide care to the patient on an ongoing basis.

Ohio's medical marijuana conditions

Ohio has 25 medical conditions that qualify someone for medical marijuana:

AIDS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Alzheimer’s disease. Cachexia. Cancer. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Crohn’s disease. Epilepsy or another seizure disorder. Fibromyalgia. Glaucoma. Hepatitis C. Huntington’s disease. Inflammatory bowel disease. Multiple sclerosis. Pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable. Parkinson’s disease. Positive status for HIV. Post-traumatic stress disorder. Sickle cell anemia. Spasticity. Spinal cord disease or injury. Terminal illness. Tourette’s syndrome. Traumatic brain injury. Ulcerative colitis.