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DHHR schedules first medical cannabis board meeting

By ERIN BECK

Charleston Gazette-Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Department of Health and Human Resources has scheduled the first meeting of the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Advisory Board.

The meeting is scheduled for Aug. 16 at 1 p.m. at the University of Charleston’s Erma Byrd Gallery, according to a meeting notice on the West Virginia Secretary of State’s website.

The group, which is charged with recommending changes to state law to the Legislature, will hear an overview of the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act, and “discuss organizational structure and first year program work plan/significant milestones,” according to the meeting notice.

The law permits doctors to recommend medical cannabis, and establishes a regulatory system overseen by the DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health.

DHHR officials said they were “in the preliminary stage of developing an implementation plan” in June and announced the 14 members of the advisory board.

The state Senate and West Virginia House of Delegates agreed on a medical cannabis bill on April 5, one of the last days of the 2017 West Virginia legislative session. Gov. Jim Justice signed it later that month. The law states that “identification cards may not be issued to patients until July 1, 2019.”

According to the law, the advisory board will:

— Examine and analyze the statutory and regulatory law relating to medical cannabis in West Virginia

— Examine and analyze the law and events in other states and the nation with respect to medical cannabis

— Accept and review written comments from individuals and organizations about medical cannabis

— Issue, two years after the bill takes effect, a written report to the governor, the Senate and the House of Delegates.

They will recommend whether to change the types of medical professionals who can issue certifications to patients, whether to change, add or reduce the types of medical conditions which qualify as serious medical conditions, whether to change the form of medical cannabis permitted, whether to change, add or reduce the number of growers, processors or dispensaries, how to ensure affordable patient access to medical cannabis and whether to permit medical cannabis to be dispensed in dry leaf or plant form, for administration by vaporization.

The current law does not allow smoking, does not allow patients to grow the plant themselves, and states that eligible patients must have one of 15 “serious medical conditions.”

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