Registration Begins for Minnesota’s Medical Cannabis Program

Registrations for signing up with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) for its medical cannabis program opened on Monday.

Manny Munson-Regala, Assistant Commissioner with the MDH said, “With most other medications you’re used to seeing your doctor, they write a prescription, and you go to a Walgreens or CVS and pick it up.”

Here, the patient has to take the medical marijuana prescription at any of the marijuana patient centers. Though, you medical practitioner can deny to permit you to sign up with the state.

Munson-Regala said, “The right to prescribe medication is a federal right. The feds have continued to say that cannabis is not currently legal nor is it medicine.”

As the concept of cannabis as medicine grows, health officials at Duluth’s Essentia Health St. Mary’s are in the course of forming a policy on the way to handle the medicine if a patient enters the door with it.

Medical marijuana will be legal from July 1 in Minnesota and health care providers started endorsing their patients to take part in the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Registry from Monday. The enrolment figures for the first day will be released by the MDH shortly.

Munson-Regala said that the rollout at the program went on smoothly on the first day. As per estimations, around 5,000 patients are expected to register for the program in the first year. By Monday noon, 11 physicians had reported at the Minnesota Medical Association and registered for accounts with the MDH, a spokesperson said.

Patients have already started to book appointments on July 1 at the one and only medicinal marijuana dispensary in Minneapolis’. This clinic is run by Minnesota Medical Solutions, which is liable for cultivating and refining 50% of the medical cannabis crop of the state. It is planning to start distributing the medicine at midnight in order to serve patients who wish to get the medicine the moment it’s legal.

The Minneapolis clinic will be located in the old League of Catholic Women building on 207 S. 9th Street. It will be staffed with pharmacists and nurses. Dr. Kyle Kingsley, the CEO of the company started to hear from doctors and patients on Monday morning and he is expecting more enrolments as the program accelerates.

Patients with eligible medical conditions like cancer, glaucoma, or a terminal disorder will qualify to register to get a medical cannabis prescription.