Your Ideal Medical Program

[j-bug]

What would an ideal Medical Cannabis program look like to you? Discussions about changes and potential changes to existing medical systems and creation of new systems both good and bad in many more places than in the past have me thinking about what's the goal? Or at least for patients what sort of marketplace or system would work best for you?

For me I think something that's a cross between CA's current fairly open market and Colorado's ubiquitous lab testing with health insurance covering a reasonable portion of the cost just like any other prescription medication. And of course it being federally legal and there not being any sort of penalty to bring medicine across state lines or even between sensible countries with no legal risk.

Sorry if this should go in ask fc I wavered a lot between here and there but decided this was probably the more relevant forum.

 

[MinnBobber]

My ideal med cannabis program would have one over-riding goal: to establish a medical cannabis system that PUTS THE NEEDS OF THE PATIENTS FIRST.

Many med programs have patient's needs way down low on the list of priorities.
- home grows would be allowed and encouraged. MN does not allow.
- no exorbitant registration fees. MN fee is $200
- no taxes as the goal is low pricing for patients AND to put black market cartels out of business
- any form of cannabis would be allowed. MN does not allow flowers, only expensive concentrates
- Dr's would be allowed to prescribe as they see fit, medically---no "list of elig conditions". MN has tiny list. Example:Cancer only elig IF it is terminal AND less than a year to live AND with chronic pain or wasting. WTF !!!
- formal stores and cannabis farmer's markets would be allowed like OR had for awhile. Encourage competition--good for patients. MN has only 2 producers and their stores so virtually no competition and high prices.

BUT---real solution is legal cannabis without a pile of useless, money gouging and restrictive BS attached to it.

 

[psychonaut]

Personally, I think the Colorado medical system is compassionate and fair. The trouble is the doctors. Some are only about cannabis as medicine, others are not at all. There are some in the middle, but the problem is the pharma industry combined with cultural stigma.

Once you speak with a doctor and they sign your paperwork, the rest of the process is pretty simple and stress free. You mail off your paperwork and you are good to go right away with your temporary card (i.e. copies of your paperwork). You could have the doctor sign off on upwards of 100 plants if that is what you need. Of course it is all up for review by the CDPHE. With a temporary card you can access medical dispensaries for 30 days while you wait for your card to be approved. Most dispensaries give you membership benefits on your first visit.

The cost of the meds is reasonable, I think it could get better, especially in the pre-packaged products. The taxes you pay are based on the tax rate in the county, so mostly I am paying 3.9% tax on my meds. No tax would be ideal for medication, but I think that's a ways down the road. Membership's at caregivers make the meds more affordable. Membership basically gives up your grow rights to your caregiver.

The other problem, if you don't grow your own medicine, is finding the right meds. Sure, I can choose between 1000 different strains, but if you want a high CBD flower for example, you may have to drive a bit to find a dispensary that has what you need. I've found that there are probably a half dozen strains that work really well for my symptoms, but the vast majority of them in my case, still need supplemental CBD.

CBD meds are also outrageously expensive, I understand that the abundance of CBD is somewhat limited compared to THC when looking at the whole plant, so we have some work to do in breeding to come up with some strains that offer in the 20% THC / 20% CBD range.

Personally, I don't like the registry.

Oh, and it would be ideal if the feds would leave us alone while we're trying to live our lives. So it would be ideal, even if cannabis stays on schedule I, to protect MMJ patients across the country.

Reciprocity would be great too, but I respect states to make their own choices there. I'll just not be visiting states that don't recognize my states MMJ card.

 

[Splatterpop Circus]

• Free medicine and accessories (vapes etc) for anyone who wants and/or needs it
• All forms of cannabis and all types of consumption would be legal
• Limitless home grows
• A system to automate regular shipping and delivery of medicine for those too disabled to grow it or get themselves somewhere where it's available, making sure people don't run out of needed medicine.
  
• A regulatory body ensuring the medicine is clean, well cured, properly labeled with accurate measurement of cannibinoids, etc
• Public consumption would be legal, intoxicated driving etc would not be

I'd have it as a socialized program where the government pays growers, sellers etc. Hell, I'd expand it to cover every medicine if I could somehow pay for it all.

Look, you asked for ideal, not realistic.

EDIT: I'd go with the same rules for all food, except for the intoxicated driving bit. If you've eaten enough regular, unmedicated cake to get high, then go ahead and drive, you earned it.

 

[syrupy]

Generous tax rebates for citizens that grow their own crops and donate to a collective.

Generous tax rebates for patients that consume through edibles and/or vaporization. Increased tax on lighters, rolling papers, dry pipes, etc.

Bring back laws requiring farmers to grow hemp, and allowing taxes to be paid in hemp/cannabis:

"Going back to 1619 America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, VA. All farmers were ordered to grow Indian hemp seed. Mandatory cultivation laws were enacted in MA in 1631, in CT in 1632, and in the Chesapeake colonies in the 1700’s.

Cannabis hemp was even used as legal tender in most of the Americas from 1631 until the early 1800’s. The reason for making it legal tender was to encourage farmers to grow more. You could then pay your taxes with cannabis hemp throughout America for over 200 years. If you did not grow hemp during periods of shortages, you could be jailed."

 

[j-bug]

• Free medicine and accessories (vapes etc) for anyone who wants and/or needs it
• All forms of cannabis and all types of consumption would be legal
• Limitless home grows
• A system to automate regular shipping and delivery of medicine for those too disabled to grow it or get themselves somewhere where it's available, making sure people don't run out of needed medicine.
  
• A regulatory body ensuring the medicine is clean, well cured, properly labeled with accurate measurement of cannibinoids, etc
• Public consumption would be legal, intoxicated driving etc would not be

I'd have it as a socialized program where the government pays growers, sellers etc. Hell, I'd expand it to cover every medicine if I could somehow pay for it all.

Look, you asked for ideal, not realistic.

EDIT: I'd go with the same rules for all food, except for the intoxicated driving bit. If you've eaten enough regular, unmedicated cake to get high, then go ahead and drive, you earned it.

This is my ideal ideal if you'll forgive the repetition. I am a great fan of single payer systems. I went with my version of most utopic assuming we haven't implemented any sort of single payer healthcare systems, but you went with much closer to my ideal thank you

Also enjoying seeing what other people like and want in a system. And look forward to even more interesting answers and ideas

 

[JordanBRK8]

Ah where to start.. NY will not even acknowledge that MMJ helps my ptsd.

 

[throwawaytre3s]

One thing that I really appreciate is the idea of employer protections for MMJ patients. I know that in RI, an employer isn't allowed to not hire for a failed drug test if you're an MMJ patient in that state. Same with housing protections, no landlord is allowed to refuse to rent to an mmj patient for that reason, and that includes homegrowing. There was a case a few years ago where a woman was trying to evict her tenant because he grew his own medical weed. He couldn't be evicted. That's a victory, I think.

 

[lwien]

I'm a vet so I'll comment on the VA and medical cannabis.

It wasn't too long ago that if it was discovered through drug testing that a Vet was using cannabis, they would automatically lose all of their medical VA benefits. Recently, that has changed and the VA doctors can now talk to their patients and even recommend the use of medical cannabis in those states where medical cannabis is legal. What now needs to happen is that in those states where medical marijuana is legal, the VA should be able to prescribe and dispense cannabis meds to those patients who the doctors believe would benefit from them.

Soooo many Vets with PTSD and other injuries are prescribed meds that they eventually become addicted to. THIS needs to change.

 

[CarolKing]

My ideal cannabis dispensary is partly what we just lost here in the state of WA. Too many regulations and sky high taxes ruin it for patients.

We had an open farmers market style organic dispensaries for the medical patients. There would be 30 or 40 venders selling edibles, flowers, concentrates and topical creams. They also had clones of plants available for those that wanted to grow at home.

There would be farmers with big glass containers of several different cannabis strains. You could smell it and touch it if they allowed that. They would even give out free samples. There might be 50 or 60 different strains available for $10 - $5 a gram. They would have shake with little nuggets for $50 an ounce.

You could talk to the farmers that actually did the farming. They would talk about their crops and some of their growing techniques. You could tell they loved sharing in their passion for their craft.

We have that no more because of the lawmakers in our state. I hope some day to have something similar again. Too many regulations are a big problem for patients and the taxes are too much. The patients can't afford all the extra costs now. The cost of edibles have tripled and you don't have the higher THC levels needed for patients.

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