As the opioid epidemic continues to plague the Ohio Valley with addiction and death, the search for safer methods of pain management has become increasingly urgent.

Advocates for medical marijuana have recently made inroads in the area with growing scientific evidence that the substance currently considered of no medical value by the federal government might be a tool to wean those suffering from chronic pain off of more dangerous drugs.

It would cost North Dakota's Health Department more than $3.5-million a year and a small army of workers to regulate medical marijuana if the issue appears on the November ballot and voters approve it, according to an analysis by the agency.

The analysis was released last week, a few hours after Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple called a special session of the North Dakota Legislature to address a $310-million shortfall to the state treasury, which may require cuts to the Health Department and other agencies.

Rilie Ray Morgan, a Fargo financial planner who is heading the effort to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, called the estimates "overblown" and an attempt to derail the effort in a budget-challenged state, a charge the agency denies.

A quick survey of recent headlines around the legalization discussion, even the federal task force's press conference, reveals a conspicuous absence: medical cannabis and the patients who rely on it.

The current debate and coverage focuses on legalization and regulation combining the interests of everyone from recreational users to growers to government. Without the interests of patients represented in this debate, we run the risk of establishing a future framework that is set up to fail and will require further modification.

It’s an age old question and the answer is a llittle more complicated and non-conclusive.

Can you actually be allergic to marijuana? Experts say it’s possible, but there could be another cause for the adverse reaction to cannabis.

“In terms of most of the patients who think they have an allergy to marijuana, we’ve found most of the time, it’s actually an allergy to mold,” said Dr. Sean Darcy of the Hollywood Easy Clinic.

Dr. Darcy, who and has been working with medical marijuana patients since 2010, says cannabis patients should closely inspect their bud for quality.

“One out of one hundred [patients] might experience a reaction.  Of those , 80 percent are due to mold,” he explained.

Synthetic marijuana goes by different names: K2, Spice, AK-47, Geeked up, Smacked, Red Giant, Trippy. These names, which mimic the availability of different strands of marijuana, distract from the foremost fact that synthetic marijuana isn’t like marijuana at all. These pseudo cannabinoids are plant material that are sprayed with chemicals and the effects are unpredictable. They are also addictive and can be up to 100 times more potent than tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in cannabis.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, first: how science is increasingly considering the possibilities of medical marijuana as conventional medicine for some cases.

Science correspondent Miles O’Brien has the second of his two reports on this for our weekly series The Leading Edge.

MILES O’BRIEN, Science Correspondent: It’s a landmark place, and time, on the long road to bring medicinal marijuana into the scientific mainstream.

The New England Treatment Access, or NETA, dispensary in Brookline, Massachusetts, is housed in a Beaux-Arts bank building built in the 1920s, a cathedral of cannabis.

Paul Breeden has been coming here to treat chronic pain since the dispensary opened in February.

JUMPING for joy might seem cliche, but pulling off the simple movement last week was a huge achievement for 11-year-old Jai Whitelaw. 

The Eatons Hill youngster was once plagued by epilepsy so severe he endured one seizure ever 2.8 minutes.

On July 3, he celebrated being seizure-free for a year.

Mum, Michelle Whitelaw, who puts the transformation down to the medicinal cannabis she has been administering to him since December 2014, says the improvement in Jai’s health has also allowed him to tick off a laundry list of “firsts”.

“ ... he can brush his teeth, he can toilet, he can tell me when he needs the toilet and he can at times tell me when he’s hungry and thirsty. He couldn’t do that before,” she said.

“He wasn’t able to run, jump.

They don’t own a car or a computer. They don’t even have a phone.

Over 30 people were hospitalized yesterday in New York City, the latest event in an epidemic that's been affecting the country's poorer populations since 2008. Synthetic marijuana, also known as K2 or Spice, was long available over the counter in corner stores and head shops, an unregulated, unpredictable chemical substance that physically resembles marijuana.

The Truth About Synthetic Marijuana Known as Spice »

The State of Maryland will begin issuing licenses for medical marijuana growers and processors as early as next month.

The program had been delayed for more than a year as state officials revised regulations and fees.

But Darrell Carrington, executive director of the Maryland Cannabis Industry Association, said expectant patients are one step closer to being able to fill their prescriptions.

"Well obviously, we're all very excited that patients will finally be getting access to the medicine they've been waiting for."