Marijuana not suitable treatment for autism, anxiety, Ohio medical board panel says

Proposals to treat autism and anxiety with medical marijuana were rejected by a state medical board committee last week. The panel recommended that the full board approve one new condition: cachexia, or wasting syndrome.

Anxiety, autism spectrum disorder and cachexia had been considered to join the list of 21 qualifying medical conditions included in Ohio’s 2016 medical marijuana law.

A State Medical Board committee reviewed petitions to add those conditions and sought an expert opinion about cachexia. The panel recommended on Wednesday approving cachexia and rejecting autism and anxiety.

The board is expected to make a final decision on the conditions during its July meeting.

The board rejected autism, anxiety and three other conditions last year, the first in which it accepted petitions for new conditions.

The petition review committee had recommended that the two conditions go forward last year and then reversed its position after hearing from children’s hospitals.

The panel, which met this time via video chat, did not explain why it recommended against adding autism and anxiety.

The board received 136 public comments on the petitions, including pleas to reject the conditions from Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association. [Read more at The Columbus Dispatch]