Women In New York Could Soon Use Marijuana To Ease Menstrual Cramps

The New York Assembly’s Health Committee approved a new bill last week that could allow people in the state to treat severe period pain with medical marijuana, Newsweek reports.

Assembly Bill 582 would add dysmenorrhea to the list of conditions people in the state are legally allowed to use marijuana to treat. Dysmenorrhea is the medical name used to talk about the pain that comes with having a period — but some people have such severe dysmenorrhea that pain relievers like Midol don't do much to help.

That's where marijuana could come in.

Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, who introduced the bill, got the idea from meeting Whoopi Goldberg, who has a line of medical marijuana products for treating menstrual pain.

“This is a woman’s health issue and for years women have suffered in silence," Rosenthal told Newsweek. “Men have really been [the ones] who’ve run state houses, governorships, presidencies, and some issues that are just about women have gotten shortchanged and that’s because it’s not in men’s everyday consciousness.”

Medical marijuana is currently a legal treatment option in New York for anyone who has one of the following qualifying conditions:

"Cancer, positive status for HIV or AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathy, chronic pain as defined by 10 NYCRR §1004.2(a)(8)(xi), or Huntington's disease."

The bill passed in the committee with a vote of 21 to 2, and it now needs to be approved by both the Senate and Governor Andrew Cuomo before it becomes a law.