Medical Marijuana Minnesota

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an easy way for me to determine my eligibility in the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program?

Determine eligibility for medical marijuana program, by answering 8 short questions.

How do you qualify and get certified for the Medical Cannabis Program in the Twin Cities?

Once you have determined your eligibility, in order to get a prescription for Medical Marijuana in the Twin Cities or the state of Minnesota, patients must go to a medical clinic such as Life Medical and be evaluated for eligibility. The providers at our clinic, conveniently located in St. Louis Park, will perform an evaluation, determine eligibility and get you certified on the Minnesota Department of Health Office of Medical Cannabis website.

What should I do to make an appointment with a doctor to be certified?

Dr. Jacob Mirman and Dr. Nina Bacaner at Life Medical both offer evaluations and certifications for patients who want to qualify for the Medical Cannabis Program in Minnesota. Patients come to us from Minneapolis and St. Paul, surrounding suburbs as even as far north as Duluth and as far south as Rochester to use our services for qualification and certification.

Call us to make an appointment at 952-933-8900. Or visit our website www.lifemedical.us

Once a patient is certified by a doctor what is the next step?

Once the patient is certified by a doctor, the Minnesota Department of Health Office of Medical Cannabis will perform an investigation and will determine if the patient is approved based on accordance with state laws.

What conditions can be treated as part of the Medical Cannabis Program?

  • Types of cancer associated with severe/chronic pain, nausea
    or severe vomiting, or Cachexia or severe wasting
  • Glaucoma
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Tourette Syndrome
  • (ALS) Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
  • Characteristics of Epilepsy including seizures
  • Muscle spasms that are severe and ongoing, including
    those characteristic of Multiple Sclerosis
  • Crohn’s disease and/or inflammatory bowel disease
  • Any terminal illness, with a probable life expectancy of less
    than one year*
  • Intractable pain
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.  (This condition will officially be added to the program list on or around August 1 2017.

 

*To qualify for the Minnesota Medical Cannabis program, you must suffer from cancer or a terminal illness with a probable life expectancy of less than one year. Or your illness or its treatment must produce one or more of the following: severe or chronic pain; nausea or severe vomiting; or Cachexia or severe wasting.

Where do I go to get the cannabis that I am prescribed?

There are eight locations statewide where you can get prescribed cannabis.  Outstate locations include: Hibbing, Moorhead, St. Cloud and Rochester. Metro locations include: Bloomington, Eagan, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

What is in Medical Cannabis that makes it effective in treating these conditions?

Researchers have identified at least two active chemicals in marijuana that they believe to have medicinal applications. Those are cannabidiol (CBD) — which seems to impact the brain without a high— and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — which has pain relieving (and other) properties.

Has the State of Minnesota reported any statistics on how patients are benefitting from the program?

The state has reported that most medical cannabis patients who completed a survey stated that they benefitted from the medication, according to the results of a voluntary survey of patients enrolled in Minnesota’s medical cannabis program during its first three months.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) survey asked patients using medical cannabis to rate their level of benefit from 1 to 7. Benefit levels were classified into no or little perceived benefit (score of 1 or 2), mild or moderate perceived benefit (score of 3 to 5) and significant benefit (score of 6 or 7).

About 90 percent of patients reported mild to significant benefits (a score of 3 or greater). Only about 20 percent of patients reported side effects.

What are the top conditions that medical cannabis is being used for in Minnesota?

The top three conditions for medical cannabis use were severe muscle spasms, seizures and cancer. Of these three, cancer had the highest patient-reported benefit scores. Patients and health care practitioners reported benefits for all of the approved conditions.

Will the program add new conditions?

The Minnesota Department of Health is currently accepting requests to add new qualifying medical conditions or delivery methods to the medical cannabis program. MDH is authorized to add new qualifying conditions or delivery methods through a public petition process.

Why are some people turning to medical marijuana to help them with the conditions listed? Are there no conventional methods of treatment that are effective?

As an example, our clinic Life Medical is an integrative clinic that offers conventional medicine along with a number of modalities including homeopathy, acupuncture, supplements, herbs and low-level laser therapies. We offer many more types of treatments than the vast majority of other medical clinics. Still there are some patients that we cannot help with any of these. Which is why we offer medical marijuana as an additional complementary therapy for qualified patients.

So although medical cannabis has not yet become a mainstream treatment, we are now able to use it to legally treat specific conditions in Minnesota. And once they have been certified and approved by the state for the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program, many of our patients have had excellent results.

Call us to make an appointment at 952-933-8900. Or visit our website www.lifemedical.us.