Chronic pain is No. 1 reason Kentuckians applied for medical marijuana card

Chronic pain is the No. 1 reason why people apply for a medical marijuana card in Kentucky, Margaret Vancampen reports for WHAS11 in Louisville.

“The No. 1 condition the office is seeing is chronic pain, followed by post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic nausea and seizure disorder,” according to data received by WHAS in an open records request to the state’s Office of Medical Cannabis.

Kentucky’s law limits medical marijuana to state residents living with at least one of six qualifying medical conditions, including cancer of any type or form, epilepsy and other intractable seizure disorders, chronic or severe pain, multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms and spasticity, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and chronic nausea or cyclical vomiting syndrome.

A spokesperson from the governor’s office told Vancampen that, as of Sept. 15, 13,925 Kentuckians had been approved for a medical cannabis card, with just over 90 of them “caregivers” of people who help patients with purchasing and administering it. And, medical cannabis practitioners have submitted “almost 20,320″electronic written certifications.

At a Sept. 4 news conference, Gov. Andy Beshear said while the dispensaries are waiting on the cultivators and processors, he believes they will be operating by the end of the year.