Highlights from the April 12, 2023 PA Medical Marijuana Advisory Board Meeting

Hi all,

For all those that follow the workings of the Medical Marijuana Advisory Board, the first 2023 meeting of the Medical Marijuana Advisory Board was held this morning. The format was via Microsoft Teams and unfortunately the audio was really bad. Several presenters were frankly inaudible. However, nothing very earth-shattering was discussed. Here's a brief overview of the key points following the agenda.

Program Updates

-This year marks the 7 year anniversary of the signing of Act 16.

-The progress of the Medical Marijuana Assistance Program (MMAP) was recapped - Notably that Phase 3 pilot went live Nov 2022. As a reminder, the pilot includes only those receiving Pace/Pacenet benefits, which is only about 1100 people in the program. The DOH partnered with the Office of Aging and Magellan to make that pilot happen.

No further information was given about the expansion of Phase 3 to other beneficiary groups unfortunately.

-Sales and purchasing trends were recapped. Essentially: prices continue to trend down slowly; dry leaf continues to make up the highest percentage of sales.

Old Business

-As published in the PA Bulletin in March, Chronic Hepatitis C was added to the list of qualifying conditions for participation in the PA Medical Marijuana Program. "To be clear, (although) medical marijuana cannot treat Hepatitis C, there is research that supports that when used to complement physician prescribed medication, there is a higher likelihood of treatment success for chronic hepatitis C."

-The topic of Health Contact Feedback Form submissions was discussed. The Patient and Caregiver Subcommittee is now tasked with reviewing the feedback submissions from the public. They will provide an update and offer feedback and trends at the next meeting.

New Business:

-Subcommittee assignments were discussed.

-There will be a change of board meeting frequency for 2023: Board will now meet every 2 months instead of quarterly.

Subcommittee Updates:

-Medical Review Subcommittee - No serious medical condition applications were submitted, so there is nothing for review.

-Patient and Caregiver Subcommittee - Nothing to report. They will be meeting within the few next weeks.

-Regulatory Review Subcommitee - No formal recommendations at this time. The chair of the committee did note that they have received a request from another professional board to be allowed to certify patients. They will take it under consideration. No additional details were given.

-Medical Research Subcommitee - The committee chair discussed the presentation from the July 28, 2022 meeting given by grower/processor Organic Remedies. At that meeting, a representative from Organic Remedies presented research and a request to allow/expand remediation of cannabis products (beyond what is currently allowed). After reviewing the regulations/standards in other states and other available research, the Medical Research Subcommitee made the recommendation to deny that request. Questions about the reproducibility of Organic Remedies' research were cited since the research they presented used a proprietary process.

There was a motion to approve the recommendation of Medical Research Subcommittee, which was seconded and voted upon. The motion was approved.

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The next Board meeting is scheduled for June 28th 10:30am-12:30pm.

Note: This posts represents highlights of the meeting and is not an exhaustive recap. The minutes of the meeting are typically available after their approval at the following Board meeting, so check on the DOH site for those meeting minutes if you're interested - Should be available sometime in July/August.

My best regards,

Dr Jen Minkovich