Medical Cannabis Act Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

House Committee Moves To Add Marijuana To Controlled Substance Database

The House Committee on Health and Human Resources passed House Bill 2756 Thursday which would require medical marijuana be added to the controlled substance monitoring database.

Supporters argued physicians should have access to these records in order to know what their patients are taking, even prescribed medical marijuana, in case of interactions with other medications.

Opponents said it was unnecessary to further record and report medical marijuana patients, beyond existing registries. Others voiced concerns about the privacy of patients and possibility of federal involvement with this type of registry.

Rusty Williams is the Patient Advocate on the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Advisory Board. He spoke against HB2756.

“My biggest concern is for West Virginia Medical Cannabis Patients’ Second Amendment rights,” Williams said. “You know, right now, the only thing that protects West Virginia cannabis patients is a provision in the omnibus spending bill on the national level. Now, it used to be called the Rohrabacher Farr amendment. I’m not 100% sure what they call it now. But what that does is it prevents the DOJ from allocating any resources to go in and enforce federal cannabis laws in states that have legalized whether that be recreationally or medically.”

The Medical Cannabis Act includes a statute that sets up a registry of patients, but the registry is only accessible by law enforcement with provable probable cause.

Williams also said he has not met a single patient or doctor who has voiced concerns that would require medical marijuana be reported to the controlled substances database.

“I do think it’s important that folks realize that the medical professionals on the advisory board, none of them have gone through the continuing education courses that physicians are required to complete to certify medical cannabis patients,” Williams said. “And in my opinion, they’re really coming from an uneducated place on this issue. I think there’s a lot of fear in the conversation. There’s a lot of propaganda and bad information thrown out there. And I worry that these potential recommendations could put patients in a position where, you know, they could lose their therapy.”

Del. Heather Tully, R-Nicholas, supported the bill, stating that she is a licensed provider and would make use of the proposed additions to the controlled substances database in treating her patients.

“I am a provider, I actually have a DEA license and I do prescribe medications,” Tully said. “So I do not have access to the information on who does and does not have a medical cannabis card, it probably would be a discussion I would have with the patient. However, there is no way to automatically know whether somebody is getting it, I think it is a good idea to allow your providers access to know who has these things. And so that way, you don’t make a fatal medication error or do not make a prescribing error.”

The bill passed the House committee and is headed to the Committee on the Judiciary and then to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass.

More Than 8,000 Receiving Medical Cannabis In W.Va.

Medical cannabis is finally available to more than 8,000 patients in the Mountain State. Lawmakers greenlit the product in 2017, but it wasn’t until this year that a dozen dispensaries opened.

Now 60-year-old Fairmont resident Bob Fisher has access to a product that eases his back pain.

“I have two herniated discs in my lower back. Sometimes it’s not so bad, sometimes it’s really horrible,” Fisher said. “Like right now, I’m going through a spell where I’m going to Quasimodo coming out of the bell tower thing where I sort of drag one leg behind me.”

Fisher said that as a child of the 70s, he’s no stranger to some recreational cannabis use. But having post-traumatic stress disorder and back pain got him curious about the medicinal benefits of the plant.

He read up on the topic and was eager to participate in West Virginia’s program. However, he didn’t get his hopes up either. He had to wait five years for the product to be available.

“I waited until I actually saw news reports of active growing actually happening,” Fisher said. “Once I saw that someone actually had seeds in the dirt, that’s when I went ahead and did my application.”

Bob Fisher makes brownies out of his medical cannabis. Edibles aren’t legal in West Virginia, but Fisher can make it himself with product from dispensaries.

Fisher can now buy the product, though it’s not covered by insurance and isn’t cheap. He bakes brownies with it most often. He still takes pain medicine to ease his back problems, but he’s not taking nearly as many pills since he started cannabis. Fisher said it’s not a cure-all, but it gives him physical and mental relief.

“I can read or watch TV and be able to function without sitting and thinking about how miserable I am,” Fisher said.

The proposed benefits of medical cannabis are wide ranging. That’s because it taps into your endocannabinoid system. Much like your nervous system, it impacts every part of your body.

“I think within the next decade, we’ll see a whole new host of uses for medical cannabis,” said Dr. Meredith Fisher-Corn. She created the curriculum every doctor in West Virginia, and some other states, must take before they begin recommending cannabis.

“Every day, I read through the medical literature and I examine the medical cannabis studies, I do,” Fisher-Corn said.

She’s watched the research grow exponentially in recent years. She said the findings suggest a wider use for medical cannabis than what’s approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has only approved the cannabis components THC and CBD for those with cancer, HIV and a certain epilepsy.

That means cannabis is an off-label medication, which isn’t uncommon. Fisher-Corn offered a way to reconcile the limited FDA recommendations with what newer research says is possible, but not proven.

“The current research has not found that cannabinoid therapies are superior to the current first line therapies for any condition. So in other words, cannabis should not be used before a patient tries their current first line therapy for any condition,” Fisher-Corn said.

Fisher-Corn said doctors don’t often learn about the endocannabinoid system, but she thinks they should.

“Patients are just trying to explore cannabis therapies, and they need their clinicians’ assistance,” she said.

Patients in West Virginia are clearly interested. State law says doctors can’t advertise that they recommend the product, and still patients find doctors like Dr. Hassan Jafary. He’s a psychiatrist in Beckley.

He said older patients inquire about the product hoping it can ease them off pain pills.

“They know that this opioid, it doesn’t matter if it helps you… it’s not safe,” Jafary said.

Cannabis is in no way a panacea for opioid use disorder. Health agencies say you can even get addicted to cannabis. But Jafary points out the big difference between opioids and cannabis.

“No study will ever show that it’s ever killed anybody, you know?” he said.

Dr. Heather Skeens sits with her brother-in-law Reid Glass outside the Greenbrier Hotel. Glass died of cancer in 2019.

Dr. Heather Skeens first took interest in medical cannabis while her brother-in-law, Reid Glass, had terminal cancer.

“He was in severe pain and couldn’t sleep. He was very anxious all the time. Because he thought he would go to sleep and drown in his own blood because he had tumors throughout his lungs,” Skeens said.

She said Glass was prescribed opioids to ease his pain, but he also used cannabis. He had to get it illegally from a grower in Kentucky, where he had worked as an attorney, or from friends who had traveled to states where it was legal.

“It was the only thing that gave him a restful sleep,” Skeens said.

Taking care of her brother-in-law until his death in 2019 got Skeens interested in medical cannabis. She studied it in California and is licensed to recommend the product in a few other states.

She’s glad that dispensaries have opened in West Virginia, but she sees many roadblocks.

“Patients are really scared when they call, they feel like they’re going to be judged… They ask a lot of questions like ‘Is my doctor gonna know?… Is my employer gonna know? And am I gonna get in trouble?’” Skeens said.

She also criticizes how few conditions qualify patients for medical cannabis in the state.

State lawmakers decide which patients have access to medical cannabis. That includes folks with Parkinson’s or cancer or PTSD. But it doesn’t include other mental health conditions, such as anxiety or even substance use disorder.

“If I talk to my patients in Montana, these people over there, they’re so accustomed to cannabis being a normal treatment… But on this side of the US, there’s still a large stigma around it,” Skeens said.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

W.Va. To Start Distributing Medical Cannabis In The Spring, Announces Processors

West Virginia is moving forward with a plan to distribute medical cannabis in 2021, a project that has been in progress for three years now.

State health officials announced Friday, Nov. 13 which counties would receive permits to process medical cannabis requests. There were 10 processor permits awarded to Cabell, Harrison, Upshur, Berkeley, Roane, Mineral, Greenbrier and Raleigh counties. Of those permits, two were given to Upshur and Raleigh counties.

“This is an important step to ensure that medical cannabis is made available to residents with serious medical conditions while also generating economic activity throughout West Virginia,” said Jason Frame, director of the West Virginia Office of Medical Cannabis.

The permits will allow companies to process the plant into acceptable products under the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act from 2017. Such products could include pills, oil, topical ointments, dry leaf, tincture, liquid or dermal patches.

The next and last phase is certifying dispensers. Dispensaries will take the product from the processors and get it to those in need. State leaders hope to begin distributing medical cannabis cards to consumers with a valid medical condition by next Spring.

W.Va. To Accept Medical Marijuana Lab Permits Indefinitely

Efforts to provide qualifying West Virginians with medical cannabis are underway with new developments, three years after the Medical Cannabis Act was signed into law.

The West Virginia Office of Medical Cannabis is accepting permit applications for medical cannabis labs after previously closing this process on Feb. 18.

Medical cannabis processors, dispensaries, growers and labs had two months to submit applications, but according to the Office of Cannabis, only one lab applied for a permit during that period: Microbac Laboratories in Charleston.

The office will accept applications indefinitely, and there will not be a limit on the number of lab permits, according to a press release.

“This is a key step in the process to make medical cannabis available to West Virginians with serious medical conditions,” said Jason Frame, director of the Office of Medical Cannabis.

Labs are where marijuana is tested for quality control and potency, a vital part of distributing medical marijuana, according to the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

West Virginia’s Medical Cannabis Act was signed into law in April 2017, with the goal of distributing within two years. State Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch estimates the program will be fully operational by spring 2021.

West Virginia physicians were permitted on May 28 to begin the registration process to treat patients within the state who require medical marijuana.

The Office of Medical Cannabis has not yet released the number of physicians who have since applied. Physicians are required to complete the ‘West Virginia Medical Cannabis Program,’ which is $189.

W.Va. Medical Marijuana Program Opens To Physician Registration

Starting Thursday, May 28, West Virginia will be one step closer to administering medical marijuana to qualifying residents.

For the first time, West Virginia physicians will be permitted to begin the registration process to treat patients within the state who require medical marijuana.

This comes three years after the Medical Cannabis Act was signed into state law, creating the Office of Medical Cannabis. During a two-month period that ended earlier this year, 285 medical marijuana dispensaries, growers, processors and laboratories submitted permits to the state.

The physician registration process will be exclusively online, according to a Department of Health and Human Resources press release. It will also include a mandatory four-hour education course.

According to the DHHR, the physician registration process does not mean that qualifying West Virginia patients will be able to obtain medical marijuana immediately. But DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said he estimates the state’s medical cannabis program will be fully operational by Spring 2021.