Legislation that would add 40 conditions that qualify a patient for medical marijuana was introduced in the state’s House of Representatives on Monday.

House Bill 1150, filed by Republican Rep. Doug House of North Little Rock, would more than triple the qualifications required to participate in the state’s medical marijuana program. The bill would also strike one condition — glaucoma — from the list of approved qualifications.

Approved by state voters in 2016, Amendment 98 to the Arkansas Constitution allows patients suffering from cancer; glaucoma; HIV or AIDS; hepatitis C; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Tourette syndrome; Crohn’s disease; ulcerative colitis; post-traumatic stress disorder; severe arthritis; fibromyalgia; or Alzheimer’s disease to use medical marijuana. Various medical conditions causing “intractable pain” also qualify patients for the medical marijuana program.

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Qualifying conditions that would be added under HB1150 include: adiposis dolorosa or Dercum’s Disease; anorexia; Arnold-Chiari malformation; asthma; attention deficit disorder; attention hyperactivity disorder; autism; bipolar disorder; bulimia; causalgia; chronic inflammatory demyelinating poly neuropathy; chronic insomnia; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; complex regional pain syndrome Type I and Type II.

Emphysema; fibrous dysplasia general anxiety disorder; hydrocephalus; hydromyelia; interstitial cystitis; lupus; migraine; myasthenia gravis; myoclonus; nail-patella syndrome; neurofibromatosis; Parkinson’s Disease; posterior lateral sclerosis; post-concussion syndrome; reflex sympathy dystrophy; residual limb and phantom pain; restless leg syndrome; Sjogren’s syndrome; spinocerebellar ataxia; spinal cord injury or disease including without limitation arachnoiditis; syringomyelia; Tarlov cysts; or traumatic brain injury.

House told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he tried to draft a list of all possible conditions that patients might treat with cannabis. Expanding the list of qualifications would prevent patients or doctors from lying so that a patient needing a medical marijuana ID card can get one, he said.

He decided to drop glaucoma as a qualification after consulting with several ophthalmologists who warned him that cannabis can provide temporary treatment for the condition, but can ultimately cause it to worsen because it deprives the eye of oxygen or other nutrients, House said.

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Little Rock attorney David Couch, who drafted Amendment 98, told the Democrat-Gazette that he had mixed feelings on the bill. He was glad the bill would expand access to the drug for the people who need it, he said, but also felt that glaucoma should remain a qualifying condition.

Every medicine carries some risks and patients should be the ones to decide if treating their glaucoma with medical marijuana was the right decision for them, Couch said.

HB1150 was read twice in the House of Representatives on Tuesday before being assigned to the House Rules Committee. A date and time for the committee to take up consideration of the bill had not been scheduled as of Tuesday afternoon.

The Arkansas Department of Health has approved more than 6,700 patients for medical marijuana ID cards. Applicants must pay a $50 yearly registration fee, provide a copy of a valid Arkansas driver’s license or other state-issued ID and obtain a written certification from a physician that the patient has a qualifying medical condition.

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Medical marijuana ID cards are expected to be issued starting next month, the agency has said.

Plant Family Therapeutics of Mountain Home was one of 32 applicants recently approved by the state to open a medical marijuana dispensary. Barring any legal challenges or setbacks, state regulators estimate that the first dispensaries will open in the spring.