Dear Neighbors,
This has been a busy week, and I wanted to update you on a few important news items regarding the health of our state budget and the addition of intractable pain as a qualifying condition for the medical cannabis program.
Budget Surplus
Yesterday, Minnesota Management & Budget (MMB) announced the budget forecast for fiscal years 2016-17. According to MMB, lawmakers will enter next year's legislative session with a $1.9 billion surplus. Roughly $665 million of that will be set aside for reserves and repayments, leaving about $1.2 billion of surplus. You can learn more about the budget outlook and the health of our economy by following the budget forecast link above.
Last year’s session was a huge missed opportunity. Lawmakers entered session with a $2 billion surplus, but the House GOP pushed an agenda that put corporate special interests ahead of Minnesota families, including big tax cuts for the wealthiest property owners in Minnesota. Meanwhile, many Minnesotans were left to deal with increased property taxes, higher tuitions, and higher health care costs. It's time for us to put the interests of everyday Minnesotans ahead of corporate special interests. With another large surplus to work with, the legislature can and should do better this year.
Intractable Pain Added to Medical Cannabis Program
On Wednesday, Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Ed Ehlinger announced his decision to add intractable pain as a qualifying condition for Minnesota’s medical cannabis program.
Commissioner Ehlinger acknowledged a range of views on the issue as well as the difficulty of making a public health decision without the benefit of an abundance of solid, scientific evidence about benefits and risks.
Given the strong medical focus of Minnesota’s medical cannabis program and the compelling testimony of hundreds of Minnesotans, it became clear that the right and compassionate choice was to add intractable pain to the program’s list of qualifying conditions.
When the 2014 Minnesota Legislature passed the law creating Minnesota’s medical cannabis program, it included a set of nine health conditions that would qualify a person to receive medical cannabis. The law tasked the health commissioner with evaluating what conditions to add, and required that the first of the conditions to be considered was intractable pain.
The 2014 law defines intractable pain as a condition “in which the cause of the pain cannot be removed or otherwise treated with the consent of the patient and in which, in the generally accepted course of medical practice, no relief or cure of the cause of the pain is possible, or none has been found after reasonable efforts.”
Under current law, patients certified as having intractable pain will be eligible to receive medical cannabis from the state’s two medical cannabis manufacturers on August 1, 2016. As with the program’s other qualifying conditions, patients seeking medical cannabis to treat intractable pain will need advance certification from a Minnesota health care provider. More information on the program’s certification process is available on the MDH website at Medical Cannabis: Intractable Pain.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Office of Medical Cannabis worked over the last few months to collect available scientific information, and developed a community engagement process that included 13 public meetings around the state as well as an online comment submission process. In the end, MDH heard from nearly 500 Minnesotans – more than 90 percent supporting the addition of intractable pain as a qualifying condition.
There are a number of provisions within Minnesota’s medical cannabis program that reduce the risk of misuse. First, the program has a strong medical focus, with features designed to generate real-world information about the product’s efficacy. Second, the program limits the form of cannabis to pill, liquid or vapor. This has the benefit of reducing the risk of drug diversion for improper use or for recreational use. Third, the program allows for just two manufacturers to grow and produce medication, with strong process controls and security measures.
MDH will be asking providers to share information every six months regarding the positive and negative impacts of medical cannabis experienced by patients with intractable pain. This information will be summarized and shared with the public.
If you have questions or concerns, you can contact my office at Rep.Susan.Allen@house.mn or 651-296-7152.
Sincerely,
Susan Allen
State Representative