Utah’s officials confirmed the new milestone reached by its medical marijuana program. More than 100,000 patients are now registered.
Utah voters approved the medical marijuana ballot initiative in 2007. It has been seven years. The Center for Medical Cannabis of Utah’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) has released new statistics showing that the medical cannabis program continues to grow.
CMC reports that as of April this year, 100144 people were registered with CMC and there are 993 doctors who have been certified.
Around this time last, the total patient population was around 83,000. The number of patients is expected to increase by 20 percent in 2025.
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Rich Oborn told Fox 13 that “it’s an important milestone for the program and represents all of the work patients have put in to finding medications that are effective.” The medical cannabis program is carefully evaluated with the help of a physician.
The majority (85 355) of medical marijuana patients use it for pain. This is followed by nausea (2 084) and post-traumatic disorder (6 573).
As more patients have registered, sales have also steadily increased over the last five years, with monthly purchases reaching just over $15 million in recent months. According to the report, cumulative sales have reached $600,000,000 since the launch of the program.
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While cannabis flowers are the most popular form of marijuana in many states with legalization, last month, more patients bought cartridges and vapes (6,9 million dollars) than they did flower ($4,8 million).
The milestone of reaching 100,000 registered medical marijuana patients in Utah was encouraging. The program’s success is evidenced by the fact that Utah patients are using plant medicines to treat chronic conditions and disabilities, said Desiree Hennely, Executive Director of the Utah Patients Coalition.
She said that the key to this achievement was a greater acceptance of plant medicine by physicians and patients, increased destigmatization, and better access. Every day, we are hearing success stories of Utahns that have found relief for conditions pharmaceuticals couldn’t address.
Hennessy stated that “there’s still a way to go, and we would like to extend this to pre-qualifying situations. However, it is a sign of how medical cannabis has been re-evaluated by the public and they are now listening.” This program existed on paper only six years before. It’s now a lifeline to one in thirty-five Utahns.
A poll conducted in March found that most Utahns support the legalization of adult-use cannabis in the state. In the survey, 52 percent of Utah voters registered would vote in favor of a ballot measure to end marijuana prohibition.
However, the prospects for a conservative state legislator to pass such a reform are bleak.
When asked recently about the prospects of adult-use legalization, House Speaker Mike Schultz said that he had a “huge issue with making Utah a recreational State” and “it’s not going to happen.”
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Utahans’ support for legalization is on the rise, according to a recent survey.
A poll from late last year that was also conducted by Noble Predictive Insights found that 50 percent of respondents favor the reform. Additional 38 percent agreed with the idea of only allowing medical cannabis to be prescribed by doctors. Just 9 percent of respondents said that marijuana should remain illegal.
State lawmakers have taken steps to build upon the state’s medical marijuana law in recent years.
Utah is known as a conservative state, but its legislature passed a separate law last year that authorized hospitals to use psilocybin/MDMA in specialized treatment programs. Last year, the governor allowed that law to take effect without signing it.
A federal judge recently ordered that county law enforcement in Utah return the psilocybin fungi that they seized from Provo City’s religious group, which uses psychedelic mushrooms as sacrament.
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Mike Latimer is the photographer.
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