With the passage of a ballot initiative this month, Massachusetts became the latest state to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes, joining 17 others and the District.
But for patients who use marijuana to alleviate chronic pain,
nausea or to stimulate their appetite, among other uses, legalizing
marijuana is only part of the battle. Health insurance rarely if ever
covers its use; some patients spend hundreds of dollars a month or more
on the drug. The situation may not change anytime soon, some experts
say.
Along with heroin, LSD and some other drugs, marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 substance
under the federal Controlled Substances Act. That means the drug is
considered to have no accepted medical use and a high potential for
abuse.
In October, consumer advocates presented oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
to remove marijuana from that list. Reclassification would make it
easier to conduct research on therapeutic uses for marijuana, say
advocates, and ultimately make the drug more accessible to patients.
Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration denied a request to reclassify the drug, following an evaluation by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Proponents of medical marijuana argue that research shows marijuana to be effective
or show promise in treating a variety of medical problems, from cancer
pain and nausea to spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis. They point
to the drug Marinol,
which is approved to stimulate appetite in patients with AIDS and
contains a synthetic version of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), one of the
active ingredients in marijuana. But health insurers remained
unconvinced.
There are
