Marijuana and Mental Health Discussed in Eveleth

Medical cannabis is now legal in Minnesota to treat 13 qualifying conditions

EVELETH, Minn. – The marijuana debate was discussed on the Iron Range.

A community forum in Eveleth brought law enforcement, health professionals, and cannabis providers together to talk about how marijuana can impact mental health.

Medical marijuana is legal in Minnesota. For many, the discussion has now turned to the benefits and risks about making recreational marijuana legal.

“Is it something that can be considered a medicine?” asks Deputy Chief Chad Nickila of the Virginia Police Department. “Is it something that is a gateway drug that we are finding people are then turning to harder drugs, the meth and the opioids?”

A lot of questions are still unanswered about medical marijuana use.

Since August 2017 the drug has been approved to treat PTSD in Minnesota.

“I would say in general the majority of my clients have a better response to this medication than other medications that are available,” said Tom Johnson, the CEO of Lakeview Behavioral Health.

Experts say cannabis has been shown to have less adverse effects on patients than some other psychiatric medicine, but some negative effects can still happen.

“There is definitely some cognitive side effects,” said Johnson. “Some people describe lack of motivation and even depressed mood at times.”

According to Hibbing Leafline Dispensary pharmacist Jeff Shapiro, a lack of dispensaries in the northern part of the state remains a problem. Leafline in Hibbing is the only dispensary north of St. Cloud.

“I’ve had patients all the way from three months old to ninety-four years old and obviously the travel part of that makes it a little bit difficult for a lot of our patients,” said Shapiro.

Recreational cannabis is still illegal in Minnesota, but law enforcement does not enforce marijuana laws as strictly as they used to.

“When you catch somebody with marijuana, that’s nothing compared to the meth and the opioid issue that we have so you tend to find that quite often the marijuana is confiscated, discarded, put in evidence, but quite often people aren’t being charged at this point,” said Nickila.

There can be many statewide beneifits to legalizing the drug, but it can cause legal problems too.

“How do you enforce the laws that still pretain to DWIs? Smoking up, being high on marijuana and driving, it’s not like alcohol where there’s a hundred and ten percent proved test,” explains Nickila.

Many at the forum in Eveleth can see both good and bad effects to legalizing the drug.

“From a pharmacist standpoint I obviously like the medicinal side. From a taxpayer standpoint I might like the recreational side,” said Shapiro.

Medical cannabis is only legal in Minnesota for patients who have one of thirteen qualifying conditions.

Those patients must then find a doctor willing to certify them for medical marijuana. That certification is what allows patients to go receive medical cannabis from a dispensary.

In August 2019, Minnesota is adding Alzheimer’s Disease to their list of medically qualified conditions.