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(Apr. 30) — The House voted in favor of a bipartisan bill sponsored by Rep. Edie Hooton that would add a condition for which a physician would prescribe an opioid, primarily for acute pain, to the list of disabling medical conditions that authorize a person to use medical marijuana for his or her condition.
“The opioid epidemic doesn’t discriminate, it affects all ages, races, genders, and socioeconomic status. Medical marijuana is an option to help people with their disabling pain without the repercussions of addictions that we are seeing in this epidemic,” said Rep. Edie Hooton, D-Boulder.
SB19-013 creates a statutory right to use medical marijuana for a patient with a condition for which a physician would prescribe an opioid for pain. Typically, these conditions are for acute pain and under current law, we already allow the ability for medical marijuana to be prescribed for different kinds of pain like chronic or debilitating pain. The bill creates the same rights, limitations, affirmative defense, and exceptions from criminal laws for these conditions as the constitutional right to use medical marijuana for other conditions.
Rep. Hooton sponsored a similar bill last year but it was blocked in the previously Republican-controlled Senate. This year there was a breakthrough.
SB19-013 passed with a bipartisan vote of 47-16 and now heads back to the Senate for approval of amendments. It previously passed the Senate 27-7.