Yesterday was another great day at Cannacon. I had a short shift but it was so valuable. I got to meet another of George's instructors! Jaitegh 'JT' Singh Esq was up from Florida! You never know on how big something is until you have a look from several different angles. I let him know that there was a Cannabis College Seminar going on right now in Portland. He was thinking of heading down to Pasadena to see a 420 College seminar on George's home turf because how awesome would it be to see where teaching about the cannabis industry began? The big questions that I was getting yesterday. 'How does Health Insurance fit with Medical Marijuana?' Since I am an expert in the state for both, I had to chime in a couple times about case law being set. (Yes you can talk with me about the Washington Health Exchange for those Insurance Questions as well.) Yes, that is correct there has been one where a judge ordered a health insurance company to pay for medical marijuana treatment. This is the breakdown: Back in May of 2014, Gregory Vialpando, was found by a doctor to suffer from "some of the most extremely high intensity, frequency, and duration of pain," out of thousands of patients he had seen, the ruling stated. The state's Court of Appeals voted unanimously on Monday to uphold a previous workers compensation court decision that also ruled in favor of the 55-year-old former mechanic, who suffered a lower back injury in 2000, according to court papers. The Santa Fe mechanic's former employer, Ben's Automotive Services, and its insurer, Redwood Fire & Casualty, had objected to reimbursing the man for using medical marijuana as treatment, citing the drug's illegality under federal law. Albuquerque attorney Peter White, who represents the mechanic, said he is not aware of any other state where a workers compensation board has approved a patient's reimbursement for medical marijuana. "It's an important decision for workers so seriously injured they would be bound to a lifetime of narcotic medications," White said. Tamar Todd, a staff attorney with the Drug Policy Alliance, said she had not heard of a similar ruling as this decision by the New Mexico Court of Appeals. "It might be fairly unique," she said. Medical pot is allowed in New Mexico and 20 other states as well as the District of Columbia, but it remains illegal under federal law. Voters in Washington state and Colorado in 2012 voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. New Mexico Court of Appeals Judge James Wechsler's written opinion found the employer and its insurer failed to cite a specific federal law they would be forced to violate by reimbursing the man for his medical marijuana treatment. So yes in the insurance world, a few of us are looking at medical marijuana very seriously. It is one of the reasons that I do visit dispensaries and collective gardens, insure them and offer expert advice on how to protect and grow their business.