The panel recommended the full board approve one new condition: cachexia, or wasting syndrome.

Anxiety, autism spectrum disorder and cachexia had been considered to join the list of 21 qualifying medical conditions included in Ohio’s 2016 medical marijuana law.

An Ohio State Medical Board committee reviewed petitions to add those conditions and sought an expert opinion about cachexia. On Wednesday, the panel recommended approving cachexia, or wasting syndrome, and rejecting autism and anxiety.

The board is expected to make a final decision on the conditions during its July meeting.

Autism, anxiety rejected

The board rejected autism, anxiety and three other conditions last year, the first in which it accepted petitions for new conditions. The petition review committee had recommended the two conditions go forward last year and then reversed its position after hearing from children’s hospitals.

The panel, which met Wednesday via video chat, did not explain why they recommended against adding autism and anxiety.

The board received 136 public comments during a public comment period for the petitions, including pleas to reject the conditions from Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus and the Ohio Children's Hospital Association.

"The inclusion of autism and anxiety as conditions has the potential to negatively impact the health and well being of thousands of children in Ohio," Sarah Kincaid of the Ohio Children's Hospital Association wrote. "There is little rigorous evidence that marijuana or its derivatives is of benefit for patients with autism and anxiety, but there is a substantial association between cannabis use and the onset or worsening of several psychiatric conditions."

The majority of the comments supported the conditions. One man said marijuana has been a "miracle drug" for him.

"My anxiety just melts away," he wrote. "I would love to be able to get my medicine legally and not feel like a criminal."

Tiffany Carwile, a Bryan mom who submitted an autism petition, said she wasn't surprised by the committee's decision and she doesn't expect the board to approve any new conditions.

Carwhile is taking her fight to the Ohio Statehouse. A bipartisan bill pending in the House would add autism to the list, but it has yet to have a first committee hearing.

“People should have the legal right to explore these options if they feel it could treat their condition better than what they are allotted today,” Carwile said.

Cachexia backed

Cachexia is a condition that causes severe weight loss and can be associated with cancer, HIV or AIDS or other chronic conditions. Some but not all of those conditions are already included in Ohio's medical marijuana program.

Anyone could submit a petition to add a condition – one jokester urged the state to add Bengals and Browns fandom. Petitions had to contain evidence for treating the condition with marijuana and letters of support from physicians.

"The data to date is not there for the use of medical marijuana for cachexia other than for cancer-related or AIDS-related cachexia," said Dr. Anastasia Rowland-Seymour, a Cleveland physician who reviewed available research for the committee. "That being said, there are trials underway so the data may be coming down the pike."

Committee members noted pharmaceutical drugs containing synthetic THC, a compound found naturally in cannabis, has been approved by the Food and Drug Association to treat cachexia. Dr. Michael Schottenstein, medical board president, said cannabis could improve a cachexia patient's quality of life.

“From a mental health standpoint, it could be really beneficial to give someone something to increase their appetite even if it doesn’t go the heart of the cachexia per se," Schottenstein said.