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The Arizona Cannabis Nurses Association, an Arizona medical marijuana advocacy group, is appealing the Arizona Department of Health Services’ terms and delay to implement post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana for treatment in Arizona.
Lawyer Ken Sobel is representing the Arizona Cannabis Nurses Association. Sobel stated, “I will be putting in a request for a hearing to get an order from the court that orders the department to immediately implement PTSD as a debilitating condition, and to strike everything after…all that surplus language that involves delaying the implementation.”
Will Humble, Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, stated last July that medical marijuana could only be used for “palliative care,” meaning to temporarily relieve PTSD symptoms and not treat PTSD as a primary treatment. He also stated that the date chosen (January 2015) for PTSD implementation as a medical marijuana qualifying condition is to give doctors and dispensaries enough time to “develop policies, procedures and educational materials required” before distributing medical marijuana to PTSD patients.
Sobel said he and the Arizona Cannabis Nurses Association have attempted to meet with the Arizona Department of Health Services and Will Humble to help them with such policies, procedures and materials, but the department has “rejected” their help.
