PORTLAND (AP) — Public health officials have denied an Ellsworth man’s request to use marijuana legally to treat his Tourette’s syndrome.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services this week denied a request by Dr. Dustin Sulak to add Tourette’s syndrome to the list of qualifying medical conditions that marijuana use is allowed to treat.

Sulak said a denial letter signed by agency Commissioner Mary Mayhew arrived on Christmas Eve without any explanation for the decision.

Sulak and his patient, Peter Hasty, had testified in November that marijuana helped Hasty’s muscular tics caused by Tourette’s.

Hasty tells the Portland Press Herald that marijuana allows him to function in society.

Studies that looked at the effectiveness of marijuana use to treat Tourette’s are inconclusive.

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