How to get a medical MJ card in Massachusetts

Check your symptoms and conditions against the state’s list of qualifying conditions.

Massachusetts’ medical cannabis law was updated in late 2019 to give health care providers a greater ability to determine each patient’s need for medical marijuana.

Some of the main qualifying conditions include, but are not limited to: cancer, glaucoma, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), hepatitis C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS), when such diseases are debilitating.

The law also allows registered health care providers to recommend medical marijuana for “other debilitating conditions as determined in writing by a Qualifying Patient’s healthcare provider.” Debilitating is defined in the law as “causing weakness, cachexia, wasting syndrome, intractable pain, or nausea, or impairing strength or ability, and progressing to such an extent that one or more of a patient’s major life activities is substantially limited.”