By Bennabis Health recently announced that its medical cannabis program is now available to patients living in New Mexico. The company has partnered with the AltaVida Dispensary in Albuquerque to assist workers’ compensation lawsuits involving medical marijuana patients, especially those seeking to use cannabis as a medicine for chronic pain.
“This is a visionary company that paves the way for those who can most benefit from otherwise uninsured medical cannabis,” said Don Parisi, president of Benavis Health. This is a very exciting step in the growth of Benavis Health.” “By opening our network in New Mexico with AltaVida, we can advance our mission to achieve medical cannabis benefits across the nation.”
New Mexico Workers Compensation says injured workers can use medical marijuana if it is deemed “reasonable and necessary care.” Industrial Accident Compensation Act” However, the patient will have to pay at their own expense and will be reimbursed later.
“In certain states, such as New Mexico and New Jersey, carriers may reimburse the cost of medical marijuana in cases of workers’ compensation claims when providing reasonable and necessary treatment as an adequate alternative to opioids. I need a refund.” Benavis Health press release states“But in these cases, the injured worker has to pay a significant amount out-of-pocket each month for medical marijuana and has to seek reimbursement from the payer.”
Bennabis Health is a membership program and team of health insurance and cannabis industry professionals. One of her founders, Ann M. Davis, first discovered cannabis as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, but her health insurance didn’t cover switching to medical cannabis.
at the beginning of this year marchthe company partnered with a New Jersey pharmacy to offer similar benefits before expanding to New Mexico.
New Mexico opened for sale to adults on April 1, 2022, but the state has had a medical cannabis program since then. 2010 (Technically, that first cannabis-related law was enacted in 2007, Compassionate Usage of Lynn and Erin). Since then, the state law has undergone several amendments, increasing the plant growth limit from 450 to 2,500 to address supply shortages in 2018. In 2019, the state will Patient rights extensionalso added new eligibility criteria for medical cannabis use.
recently, New Mexico Cannabis Control Division reported November sales. Medical cannabis sales were $14 million, $660,000 less than in October. By April 2022, when adult sales began, medical cannabis sales hit $17 million.
As of December 5, states have also started issuing medical cannabis cards digitally.
December 6th, University of New Mexico (UNM) has announced that one of its engineering professors, Nathan Jackson, is the principal investigator of a project aimed at creating ways to make cannabis-based e-cigarettes safer. “All vaping tools work by heating liquids to over 200 degrees Celsius, which creates toxic by-products that enter the aerosol droplets that are inhaled.” Jackson said“Our technology uses a different mechanism to produce an aerosol that does not require heating, potentially eliminating harmful by-products.” “Metal Particle Analysis” and received a pilot award from the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Our technology uses a silicon substrate, no metal in contact with liquids, and uses less heat, potentially reducing the health risks associated with e-cigarettes,” Jackson said. explained. “Also, our technology can generate microscale droplets, rather than the nanoscale droplets found in current vaping tools, so the droplets can enter the bloodstream and cluster together. It could be lower and a safer aerosol.”
