Medical cannabis is legal in many different states. These states have chosen to respect the will of the people that live there and provide them with legal access to medical cannabis. The potent, powerful, misunderstood plant known as cannabis offers many people relief for a wide array of different symptoms and issues.
Medical cannabis patients utilize the therapeutical attributes of cannabinoid therapy to help them control the symptoms of chronic pain, migraine headaches, arthritis, depression, anxiety, nausea, loss of appetite, and more. Medical cannabis patients with life-threatening conditions such as cancer, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, ALS, and more have found medical cannabis to be extremely useful.
In order to become a medical cannabis patient, there are some steps you have to follow. If medical cannabis is legal in your state, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the list of qualifying conditions, if there are any. States such as Oklahoma and New York do not have a list of qualifying conditions to become a medical cannabis patient. Instead, licensed State certified MMJ doctors can recommend medical cannabis for any reason they see fit.
After establishing if you qualify to become a medical cannabis patient, the next step is to reach out and make an appointment with a state-certified MMJ doctor in your state. After you receive your medical cannabis recommendation, all that’s left to do is follow the necessary step set forth by your state for submitting your application to become a certified state medical cannabis patient.
Medical Patients Are Protected, Why Not Medical Cannabis Patients?
Medical cannabis patients pay fees, visit doctors, and pay taxes for their medication as others do. Sadly, the market for medical cannabis patients isn’t always as safe as legalization would lead them to believe. This is why it is extremely important to shop with reputable medical cannabis dispensaries that have established a good track record with their patients. The absolute best idea is to grow your own medical cannabis when you can.
Either grow it yourself or designate a qualified caregiver to grow your medical cannabis for you. A big concern with how medical cannabis is produced beyond potency is how clean it is. Some people are just looking to make money and will do whatever it takes to push out products.
Sometimes this means using dangerous chemicals and additives, some of which are even banned. Recently, this concern was brought into the light even more so after a study uncovered some startling results about what goes into some medical cannabis. Why does this happen, and why aren’t medical cannabis patients better protected from this?
It’s easy to point a finger at the culprit behind this problem. The current federal listing of cannabis as a schedule 1 drug with no accepted medical value and a high potential for addiction and abuse encourages an underground and unregulated market. This scheduling prohibits cannabis from being researched properly and many other facets.
Some would say the market poses potential risks because it is not properly regulated. But then again, I’m not really sure I personally trust those who are doing the regulating. They have proven they can be bought out to the highest bidder for decades now. Let’s see what this study had to say about medical cannabis prohibition and how it continues to put medical cannabis patients at risk.
A Study Points Out What Doesn’t Have to Be
Medical cannabis patients are knowingly continued to be put at risk because of outdated federal marijuana prohibition, according to a new study published by Environmental Health Perspectives. The study titled “Comparison of State-Level Regulations for Cannabis Contaminants and Implications for Public Health” “Examined the regulatory documents for medical and recreational cannabis in all legalized U.S. jurisdictions and compiled a complete list of regulated contaminants, namely, pesticides, inorganics, solvents, microbes, and mycotoxins.”
According to the study, they “data mined the compliance testing records of 5,654 cured flower and 3,760 extract samples that accounted for ∼6% of California’s legal cannabis production in 2020–2021.” The results were rather surprising. “A failure rate of 2.3% was identified for flowers and 9.2% for extracts in the California samples.” The big contributor to the failure rate was how cannabis is cultivated. Pests, mold, and mildew control were among the most common reasons for failing results. “Insecticides and fungicides were the most prevalent categories of detected contaminants, with boscalid and chlorpyrifos being the most common. The contaminant concentrations fell below the regulatory action levels in many legalized jurisdictions, indicating a higher risk of contaminant exposure.”
End Federal Marijuana Prohibition Today
Buying cannabis from the underground market isn’t safe. There is no telling what you might be getting. Cannabis contaminated with microbes, mold, powdery mildew, chemicals, and even feces can ruin its benefits. Some law enforcement officials will tell you a lot of illegally cultivated cannabis ends up on legal cannabis dispensary shelves.
Continued federal marijuana prohibition also puts patients at risk of being assaulted and robbed for the cash they have to carry inside a dispensary to make a purchase. Thanks to the feds, cannabis businesses are almost all cash. A few have cards or accept cards with a fee but for the most part, it’s a cash industry. This makes cannabis customers a target for would-be criminals looking to roll someone to make some cash.
Dispensary owners and grow operations have to watch out for criminals too. Dispensary owners have been tortured and killed because of the large amounts of cash they have to stash due to current federal banking regulations pertaining to the cannabis industry. Everything about federal marijuana prohibition is wrong.
It can change, though. Contact your local representative and let them know it’s time to end cannabis prohibition. Make it clear if they don’t support an end to racist, greed-driven, dangerous, and draconian cannabis prohibition, you will not support them. Vote out those who stand in the way of progress, those who stand in the way of cannabis legalization.
Disclaimer:
The information, including but not limited to text, graphics, images, and other material contained in this article, is for informational purposes only. No material from this article is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment before undertaking a new healthcare regimen. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
