Utah is one of a small number of cannabis-friendly states committed to creating a legitimate medical program on the same plane as traditional prescription medications. Thanks to a couple of recent rule changes, they are now two steps closer to realizing that goal. Decriminalization at the federal level would go a long way toward helping Utah lawmakers get where they want to go.
Despite a clear commitment to prescription cannabis, Utah is not a recreational use state. At this time, there are no plans to change that. As far as state lawmakers are concerned, cannabis should remain under the prescription umbrella. Time will tell how long that lasts.
- Limited Medical Provider Program
The first of the two rule changes is found in Utah’s Limited Medical Provider (LMP) program. According to Provo’s Deseret Wellness medical cannabis pharmacy, patients hoping to obtain medical cannabis cards were previously required to visit with a qualified medical provider (QMP). They can now meet with an LMP instead.
What is the difference? A QMP is a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or other approved medical provider who has undergone additional medical training in order to be able to recommend cannabis. Utah QMPs can normally recommend the drug to up to 275 patients at a time. There are some limited cases in which the state will approve up to six hundred recommendations.
An LMP can only recommend medical cannabis to up to fifteen patients. But here is the trade-off: they do not have to undergo any additional medical training. As long as they have prescribing authority under a restricted drug license, they can use the same electronic verification system (EVS) to recommend for up to fifteen patients.
Just this provision alone makes medical cannabis more like traditional prescription medications. Willing doctors can recommend it just as they would an antibiotic or hypertension medication.
- Equal Treatment for Public Employees
The second rule change recently taken by Utah lawmakers was passage of a new law that prevents public sector employers from discriminating against medical cannabis card holders based exclusively on their prescription medications. Under the new law, all public sector employers must treat medical cannabis the same way they treat any other prescription drug.
If an employer’s policies accommodate prescription medications as long as those medications do not interfere with an employee’s ability to do their job safely and correctly, the same accommodation must be made for medical cannabis.
The one exception to the new law applies to state and local police agencies. Due to federal restrictions that bar cannabis users from carrying firearms, police officers still must refrain from using medical cannabis. That will not change until Washington decriminalizes cannabis.
- How Washington Can Help
Speaking of decriminalization, pushing a bill through the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives would go a long way toward helping Utah achieve its goal of establishing a genuine prescription cannabis program. As things currently stand, LMPs and QMPs do not write prescriptions. All they do is recommend medical cannabis. Decriminalization would change that.
Decriminalization would put medical cannabis on a level playing field with all other prescription drugs. Doctors can then write traditional prescriptions without fear of reprisal from the federal government, health insurance carriers, hospitals, etc. Said prescriptions could be filled in the same way traditional prescriptions are filled.
Utah has taken two significant steps toward establishing a genuine prescription cannabis program. Will they get any closer? That really depends on what happens in Washington. But even if Washington doesn’t budge, Utah’s medical cannabis program is a lot better today than it was when Proposition 2 first passed in 2018.