March 23, 2010 – A Colorado legislator wants to amend a medical marijuana licensing bill to allow any military veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder to use the drug after obtaining a recommendation from a psychiatrist. In offering the amendment to Colorado House Bill 1284, Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, mentioned New Mexico’s certification of PTSD as a qualifying condition for the use of medical marijuana.

“This is one simple step towards doing something on behalf of our veterans,” Pace told Denver’s KMGH-TV. “An eight-member board of physicians in New Mexico just verified that medical marijuana does assist fight (sic) the symptoms of PTSD.”

The New Mexico Department of Health’s Medical Advisory Board is holding a public hearing next week to review petitions to add more conditions to the program. The hearing will be at 10 a.m. on March 30 in the Harold Runnels Building Auditorium in Santa Fe.  Conditions related to auto immune diseases, and severe behavioral disturbances related to autism, traumatic brain injury, mental retardation or dementia will be considered. The Board will also be reviewing the eligibility requirements for chronic pain. Currently, someone who suffers from chronic pain must show proof, such as X-rays or MRI’s, and have two physician referrals.

New Mexico currently allows the use of medical marijuana for 16 conditions: painful peripheral neuropathy, intractable nausea/vomiting, severe anorexia/cachexia, hepatitis C infection currently receiving antiviral treatment, Crohn’s disease, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Inflammatory Autoimmune-mediated Arthritis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with intractable spasticity, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, and hospice patients.  Source.