Becoming a Medical Marijuana Patient in Minnesota

David Bowman

New Member
Summary
To become a patient under Minnesota law, the person must be a Minnesota resident who has been diagnosed with a qualifying medical condition by a healthcare practitioner and has registered with the state Department of Health (DOH). Patients must submit their recommendation and any other paperwork required by DOH within 90 calendar days of the physician signed diagnosis.

Minnesota DOH will be publish draft regulations for public comment in 2014 as final rules are must be implemented by January 1, 2015.

What's Legal
SF 2470 creates access to medical marijuana products in liquid or pill form or in a form that can be vaporized. Patients may not cultivate their own cannabis and may only obtain their products from a state licensed medical cannabis manufacturer. Patients must register with DOH in order to be able to purchase medical cannabis products and have legal protections for their possession and use.

Eligible conditions
  • cancer, if the underlying condition or treatment produces one or more of the following: (i) severe or chronic pain; (ii) nausea or severe vomiting; oo (iii) cachexia or severe wasting;
  • glaucoma;
  • human immunodeficiency virus or acquired immune deficiency syndrome;
  • Tourette's syndrome;
  • amyotrophic lateral sclerosis;
  • seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy;
  • severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis;
  • Crohn's disease;
  • terminal illness, with a probable life expectancy of under one year, if the illness or its treatment produces one or more of the following: (i) severe or chronic pain; (ii) nausea or severe vomiting; or (iii) cachexia or severe wasting; or
  • any other medical condition or its treatment approved by the commissioner
Application process
Patients must submit their recommendation and any other paperwork required by DOH within 90 calendar days of the physician signed diagnosis. The application process will be more full developed by the Minnesota Dept. of Health.

Doctor
A patient's health care practitioner may recommend medical cannabis. Under the law, "health care practitioner" means a Minnesota licensed doctor of medicine, a Minnesota licensed physician assistant acting within the scope of authorized practice, or a Minnesota licensed advanced practice registered nurse who has the primary responsibility for the care and treatment of the qualifying medical condition of a person diagnosed with a qualifying medical condition.

Access/Caregivers
Caregivers must be at least 21 years of age and may not have been convicted of a felony drug offense, unless DOH determines that the conviction would not have taken place if the caregiver was enrolled in the medical cannabis program.

Consumption
Only the following forms of medical cannabis are legal under SF 2470:
  • liquid, including, but not limited to, oil;
  • pill;
  • vaporized delivery method with use of liquid or oil but which does not require the use of dried leaves or plant form; or
  • any other method, excluding smoking, approved by the commissioner
Patients may not possess medicine in a school, corrections facility, daycare facility, or on a school bus. Patients may not vaporize their medicine on any form of public transportation, in any indoor or outdoor publicly accessible location, or where a minor may inhale the vapor.

Age Limits
There are no restrictions on minor patients.

Confidentiality
Minnesota's medical cannabis law contains some of the strongest patient registry confidentiality provisions in the country. The law stipulates that state officials may only access the patient database in order to determine if a patient is complying with the law. The law forbids the database from being accessed for any other purposes and says the information in the database may not be linked to any other list, dataset, or database.

Housing
No landlord may refuse to enroll or lease to and may not otherwise penalize a person solely for the person's status as a patient enrolled in the registry program unless failing to do so would violate federal law or regulations or cause the school or landlord to lose a monetary or licensing-related benefit under federal law or regulations.

Employment
SF 2470 protects patients from employment discrimination. A patient cannot be terminated or penalized by their employer solely for their status as a registered patient, unless the employer would lose a monetary or licensing-related benefit under federal law or regulations.

Insurance
The law is silent on insurance coverage.

Out of State Patients
There is no reciprocity for out of state patients under SF 2470.

Source: ASA: Becoming a Patient in Minnesota
 
Other then the fact that this is one step in the right direction it is still a joke it is for a very small list of illnesses. Gov dayton blocked this everyway he could. Its for cbd oil pretty much it expensive and also only one part of the plant. Can't remember if he accomplished it or not but i remember he wanted to run a placebo test on adults, meaning give some people the real stuff and others get a placebo. Sorry I just am really sick of dayton.
 
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