What Medical Conditions Are Approved for Medical Cannabis in Utah
Medical Marijuana was legalized in the Beehive State on November 6th, 2018, when voters passed the Cannabis Act in the form of proposition 2. As much as cannabis remains federally prohibited, residents of Utah can now enjoy medical marijuana health benefits.
Unfortunately, cannabis is not a drug like any other. For patients to access this kind of treatment, they will need to seek approval from the Utah Department of Health. Once approved, the patient will receive a Utah Medical Marijuana Card. This card is a ticket to medical marijuana products accessed from a legal cannabis dispensary in Utah.
For patients to apply for a medical marijuana card, they need to have a qualifying condition. This article lists and expounds on all the requirements that have been qualified for medicinal cannabis treatment in Utah.
Table of Contents
Utah Qualifying Conditions
Patients with the following conditions may qualify for medicinal marijuana after they have been reviewed and approved by a qualified medical provider:
- HIV/ AIDS
- Patients with terminal conditions who have less than six months to live
- Cachexia
- Persistent nausea and vomiting that is neither pregnancy-related nor cannabis-induced
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Cancer
- Chrohn’s disease
- Intractable seizures and epilepsy
- Autism
- Multiple sclerosis
- Post-traumatic stress disorder that meets the following criteria:
– Is being managed by a licensed therapist or
– Has been diagnosed by the veteran’s administration and documented in the record
– Has been evaluated by a psychiatrist
- Patients under hospice care
- Patients with a rare condition that affects less than 200,000 people in the U.S and that is unresponsive to conventional medications.
- Chronic pain (lasting more than two weeks) that is unresponsive to conventional medication such as opioids or physical interventions
The Compassionate Use Board (CUB) also reviews patients on a case-to-case basis to determine their eligibility for medical marijuana treatment. Such patients may be lacking a Utah Qualifying Condition but may meet specific criteria that the board may consider.
Legal Medical Cannabis Products in Utah
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In Utah, medical cannabis patients may consume cannabis in the following forms:
- Pills; tablets, or capsules
- Tinctures
- Transdermal preparation
- Wax or resin
- Gelatin cubes
- Unprocessed cannabis flower
- Vaporizers
Wax or resin is a super-concentrated cannabis compound. A qualified medical provider may offer wax or resin to marijuana patients after failing to respond to two other marijuana products.
Smokable forms of medical marijuana are prohibited in Utah. However, patients are allowed to vape medical marijuana. Vaping, unlike smoking, involves less combustion and is therefore considered a safer alternative to smoking cannabis.
Cannabis edibles are prohibited in Utah. This includes infused products such as brownies, candies, and cookies, among others.
How Much Cannabis Can Patients Purchase in Utah?
Medicinal cannabis patients should not possess more than 56 grams of flower that is unprocessed or over ten grams of tetrahydrocannabinol. This should be calculated based on dosing parameters as has been recorded by the qualified medical provider.
If a patient with a qualifying condition lives at a distance greater than 100miles from a pharmacy, the patient will be allowed possession of a 28 day supply.
This includes having over 113 grams of unprocessed cannabis (flower), and at the same time, he should manage over 20 grams of medicinal THC. Medicinal cannabis can only be purchased from a licensed Utah dispensary.
How to Get Approval for Medical Marijuana in Utah
Once you have established that you have a qualifying condition in Utah, you can proceed with your plan to get approval as a medical marijuana patient. You will need to be reviewed by a qualified medical provider (QMP) before you can apply to the Utah Department of Health (UDOH).
You can find a list of registered QMPs on the official site of UDOH. The QMP will need to confirm that you have a qualifying condition that has not responded to at least two classes of conventional medications for the condition. They may ask to review your medical records to ascertain this.
You should be aware that medical providers are not compelled to offer medicinal cannabis to patients. Therefore, you need to ensure that you find one that has been certified to provide this kind of treatment to patients.
You will find their name, qualification, and contacts on the UDOH list. However, the QMP is at liberty to decide if they wish to have their name added to this list.
Once a QMP has approved you, you will need to make an online application to the Utah Department of Health for a medical marijuana card. The online application will cost $15. It should take less than 15 days to receive a response.
Apart from having a qualifying condition, you will also need to meet additional requirements such as proving that you are a resident of Utah by providing a valid government-issued ID card.
What happens if you don’t have a qualifying condition but still feel that you will benefit from medical marijuana treatment? You can make an application to the Compassionate Use Board (CUB) for them to review your circumstance.
It may take up to 90 days to get a response from CUB, after which you may be able to access medicinal cannabis in Utah. Through their parents or legal guardians, Minors also have to go through CUB to get approval for medical marijuana.
Non-Utah residents with Utah qualifying conditions can also access medical marijuana while visiting Utah. In this case, they will need to apply to the Utah Department of Health for a marijuana card that will be valid for up to 21 days. You can apply for such a card twice in a calendar year, and it costs $15 for each application.
Qualifying conditions for medical cannabis vary from state to state, and each state is at liberty to improve this list from time to time. With more researchers now looking into the therapeutic potential of the bioactive compounds in cannabis, such as cannabinoids and terpenes.
We expect that this list will get longer with time. At the end of the day, what matters is that medicinal cannabis is accessible to all deserving patients regardless of their age, location, or circumstance.
