Louisiana’s medical marijuana program will be greatly expanded to cover virtually any condition and allow any medical doctor in good standing to recommend it to patients, the News Star reports.

The expansion became law today after Gov. John Bel Edwards signed his name to Louisiana House Bill 819 by state Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall, which removes the current restriction requiring physicians to secure an extra license to be approved for recommending the medicine.

While doctors still can’t officially “prescribe” the medicine, the recommendation acts as a prescription. 

Although the bill names nine new specific medical conditions that qualify for medical marijuana treatment, it also opens up all conditions with the following line: “Any condition not otherwise specified in present law or proposed law that a physician, in his medical opinion, considers debilitating to an individual patient and is qualified through his medical education and training to treat.”

LSU and Southern University and their private partners remain the only legal growers in Louisiana, and nine medical marijuana pharmacies cover all the state’s regions.

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