As of Wednesday, chronic pain is a qualifying medical cannabis condition in New York.

The change brought forth by New York’s Health Department allows those with chronic pain to legally possess and use cannabis medicines if they receive a recommendation from a physician and register with the state. This would allow them to access one of the state’s medical cannabis dispensaries.

“After conducting a thorough review of the scientific literature it became clear that there may be certain benefits in the use of medical marijuana by patients suffering from chronic pain”; Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said when the department first announced the change in December. “Medical marijuana is already helping thousands of patients across New York State; and adding chronic pain as a qualifying condition will help more patients and further strengthen the program.”

Chronic pain now joins cancer, HIV infection 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, neuropathies, and Huntington’s disease as qualifying medical cannabis conditions in New York.