Minnesota to allow pain patients into pot program

Minnesota will open its medical marijuana program to pain patients, starting next summer.

The move, announced Wednesday by Health Commissioner Ed Ehlinger, could bring thousands of new patients into a program that has struggled with low enrollment and high prices. Ehlinger, however, said his decision was driven not by economic or scientific data but by compassion for pain-wracked Minnesotans who hope cannabis will give them some relief when every other pain treatment has failed.

“I knew the decision was not just about medicine and objective science,” said Ehlinger, a physician. “It was also about people, people who had been suffering — many of them for many, many years without lasting relief from their severe, persistent, intractable pain.”

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-to-allow-pain-patients-into-pot-program/360035981/