I'm currently working on a paper for NP school about the Utah Medical Cannabis Act (HB 3001).

Smoking marijuana will not be allowed under to current law. Marijuana will only be allowed if there is THC < 0.3% dry weight and can only be in form of tablet, capsule, oil, sublingual, topical, transdermal, gelatinous/lozenge.

There are only a few qualifying conditions to receive recommendation from a provider in Utah including: HIV, ALS, alzheimer, cancer, cachexia, persistent nausea unrelated to pregnancy or cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, MS, epilepsy, autism, hospice or terminal illness, or other "rare disease."

MDs, DOs, PAs, and NPs can prescribe but with a limit of 300 patients in their practice. It can be petitioned to add more patients 100 at a time. So when the time comes, there won't be many people getting marijuana product in Utah.

I think what scares many people is the thought that this can progress to recreational use being legal. I don't see that happening in Utah. I think that many of the uses anecdotally seem beneficial but with a lack of evidence it's hard to know for sure. I for one won't be prescribing it because I don't feel comfortable with its interactions and chronic implications. I'm open minded about it and am not convinced it's any worse than opioids potentially. The problem is we know exactly what opioids can do, and we don't exactly know what cannabinoids can do long-term. We do know they can worsen anxiety/depression and cause psychotic episodes in some after just one use. People react differently to the psychoactive part of marijuana (THC) so it may cause some people to be goofy, some to vomit, some to become psychotic, some to hallucinate. Time and evidence will tell us a lot more.