Chronic Pain Is Helping Minnesota’s Medical Marijuana Program Grow

Since Minnesota approved intractable pain as a medical marijuana qualifying condition, the program has begun to grow. Figures provided on April 13, show that the state has 6,600 registered medical marijuana patients. Of those 6,600 patients, about 60-percent of them use medical marijuana for intractable pain disorders.

Andrew Bachman is one of the state’s two approved producers, according to Southwest Journal. Bachman is an ER doctor by trade. To him, and his company LeafLine Labs, marijuana is “healthcare from the heartland”.

Bachman said, “We are truly pioneering a novel health care sector on a road that has not been blazed before.”

LeafLine Labs operates four medical marijuana facilities serving over 1,600 patients monthly.

Kyle Kingsley, CEO of MinnMed, says that intractable pain is an important condition to include in the program. He says that many people with chronic/intractable pain want to stop or reduce opioid use for treatment.

Bachman also said, “When our medicines are killers of patients who entrusted their lives and care to us, we need to first stop doing that and then we can go from there. That’s why I’m in medicine.”

Minnesota residents with PTSD will be able to start submitting applications for medical marijuana cards in August.

Neither Bachman nor Kingsley’s companies have seen a profit since their businesses started. The cost of medicine is difficult for those on fixed incomes to afford. Many of the patients that these two companies serve are 50-years-old or older.

Regardless of profit, Bachman views the state’s medical marijuana program as being successful.

He said, “We become part of their lives and part of their stories, and I got to tell you their stories are compelling. …At the end of the day, the stories of success and the life-changing testimonials that we’ve heard and push forward, those help significantly to carry the day.”