Medical Marijuana and disabled persons who have special needs trusts? It is a bit of a new world, as many states are struggling with medical marijuana laws, and particularly how those laws work well with or how they don’t work well with, federal law.
In the realm of folks with special needs, the various challenges presented regarding medical treatment and challenges surrounding activities of daily living are a given. Some people with special needs also deal with medical regimens not covered by Medicare and/or Medicaid, and of course some struggle with pain that can be tricky to treat.
For some, medical marijuana seems worth exploring, and many who have tried it have reported real benefits (as always, your mileage may vary, as they say–what works for one may not work at all for others).
If medical marijuana is approved in your state, and if the beneficiary of the trust has a medical marijuana card–a sort of approval to use marijuana– might the trustee of the trust purchase the marijuana and/or some of the compounds found in marijuana for the use of the disabled beneficiary of the trust?
This issue came up as part of an interesting webinar/seminar on many topics regarding administration of special needs trusts, set up by Stetson University College of Law in Florida (the University has a “Center for Excellence in Elder Law”).
I think folks might benefit from seeing the materials they created, and then, if it is of interest or concern, those beneficiaries of the trust interested or the trustee(s) of the trusts, might then check with their own attorney for more insight or help.
Here is where you can find the material (from April of 2019) on the web:
https://www.stetson.edu/law/conferences/snt-webinar/index.php