Medical Marijuana Shopping

Medical marijuana shopping varies by State and Country in the World.  In the United States, there are multiple States such as California and Colorado permitting patients to shop for medical marijuana with a recommendation or license from a licensed physician in the United States.

A doctor performs an examination and determines if you qualify to be a candidate for a medical marijuana license.  The next steps are to pay a fee determined by the physician and state, and then you are allowed to go shopping for medicine in your state.  In Colorado, the current law says that you do not need a medical examination or license to purchase marijuana.  Other states in the United States vary in their laws as to whom can qualify to purchase or medical marijuana shopping.  As of July 1st, 2015, there are a total of 23 states that have legalized marijuana for medical use and they are:

• Alaska
• Arizona
• California Collectives
• Colorado Dispensaries
• Connecticut
• Washington D.C.
• Delaware
• Hawaii
• Illinois
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Vermont
• Washington

Each state above has a different interpretation and definition of their laws.  The major differentiators here include who qualifies, how much a patient can have on their possession and how much they can grow if the specific state even allows growing.  For example, New York passed Assembly Bill 6357 (117-13 A; 49-10 S) in 2014.  This Bill allows a New York resident to possess 30-day supply non-smokable marijuana. Currently, New York State does not allow for legalized growing of medical marijuana and smoking marijuana is not legal.  Medical marijuana shopping is currently not widely available in New York State.  Washington State passed Initiative 692 in 1998 allows possession of 24 ounces and also allow a patient to grow up to 15 plants.  This bill has been amended most recently as of April 2015 and now says there is a voluntary registry that allows registered users to possess three times as much marijuana as allowed by their current recreational marijuana law and patients are allowed to purchase medical-grade products at stores that sell recreational marijuana.

In the example above a New York resident can be approved if they have one of the following conditions:Cancer, HIV/AIDS, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord damage causing spasticity, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, neuropathies, or Huntington’s disease. The Department of Health commissioner has the discretion to add or delete conditions and must decide whether to add Alzheimer’s, muscular dystrophy, dystonia, PTSD, and rheumatoid arthritis within 18 months of the law becoming effective.

In Washington State a resident can be approved if they have: cachexia; cancer; HIV or AIDS; epilepsy; glaucoma; intractable pain (defined as pain unrelieved by standard treatment or medications); and multiple sclerosis. Other conditions are subject to approval by the Washington Board of Health. Additional conditions as of Nov. 2, 2008:Crohn’s disease, Hepatitis C with debilitating nausea or intractable pain, diseases, including anorexia, which result in nausea, vomiting, wasting, appetite loss, cramping, seizures, muscle spasms, or spasticity, when those conditions are unrelieved by standard treatments or medications. Added as of Aug. 31, 2010: chronic renal failure.

Since the United States government has made this a state issue, each state has their own rules as to who can go shopping for medicine and how much medicinal marijuana one can possess.  The common trait here is that the intention in each state when they stared to adopt legalization was the intention was for medicinal reasons as an alternative to mainstream pharmaceutical drugs.

 

 

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