Every month it seems another state has adopted new cannabis regulations. While this may sound promising for cannabis advocates, states that adopt Adult-Use (Recreational) policies often leave the medical cannabis programs and patients worse off than they were before legalization.
Are you in a state that has recently passed Adult-Use legislation? Are you wondering if and why getting or keeping a medical cannabis certification is beneficial for you? Are you a physician, caregiver, patient, or advocate that wants to see more resources for medical cannabis patients or prospective patients?
This article will break-down the benefits of states keeping and strengthening their medical cannabis programs and why Adult-Use legislation can hurt those who rely on cannabis for symptom relief. Like and Share this article if you think more needs to be done to preserve medical cannabis resources in the United States!
Therapeutic Benefits
The most important aspect of implementing and retaining a state-sanctioned medical cannabis program is ensuring patients like you have access to quality information, education, and products that will support and enhance the effectiveness of cannabis therapies for anyone who needs or wants the benefits.
Product Variety
Traditionally, when states adopt an Adult-Use policy, educational resources and medically focused products diminish. Most often, products begin to gravitate to high THC, which if you haven’t learned already, doesn’t mean the best experience, much less the best medicine.
Since cannabis’s therapeutic benefits are maximized when “whole-plant” products (products that don’t just extract out the THC or CBD) are used, it is important to keep a variety of products that are less about intoxication and are more about symptom management.
In the majority of cases, a combination of THC and CBD are the most effective. However, in many adult-use states or dispensaries, you are lucky if you can find a 1:1 product which is one where it has equal parts CBD:THC.
Many patients need more CBD and less THC, and could benefit from different CBD:THC ratios like 2:1 or 2 parts CBD to 1 part THC. Some manufacturers like Wyld, have products that are also 5:1 or even 20:1 (20 parts CBD to 1 part THC) where there is minimal if any intoxication.
Other products with non-intoxicating cannabinoids like CBG, CBC, THCV, among others have health benefits that can’t be substituted with the products available at most adult-use dispensaries.
Inhalable products that have lower or no THC can be very difficult for you to find. If you need quick relief from anxiety or a bout of pain or digestive issue, you will be in discomfort for an hour or two until your edible begins to work. Having some dry flower or a vaporizer with CBD or CBG can make all the difference in the world.
Even if you are looking for relaxation, or help getting to or staying asleep, adding CBD into your normal cannabis preparation can give you better results than THC alone or THC dominant products.
By maintaining QUALITY medical programs, you can continue to be educated about new products or scientific discoveries that may not be available in states without medical programs and education initiatives.
By keeping you and other consumers informed, demand for a wide variety of products will increase, which is what is required for companies to keep the products in stock, especially the larger, Multi State Operators (MSOs).
Consumer Comfort, Protection, and Reassurance
If you are someone who is not a regular cannabis consumer, but are considering trying cannabis as medicine, you might be hesitant to go to a regular, adult-use dispensary because it can be intimidating. Many dispensaries are geared towards younger consumers who are looking for “a good time”, and often the decor of these shops look like night clubs or trendy clothing shops.
The staff in these shops are usually not trained on giving advice on which products to use for symptom relief or on how to talk to people in an empathetic way that makes them feel safe or avoids making them feel self-conscious.
I have worked in dispensaries and have seen older, new-to-cannabis patients leave empty handed because the 21-year-old budtender had no idea of how to talk to the customers to make them feel like they knew what they were being recommended was safe or would work for their symptoms.
Physician Involvement
With more available education and medically focused products, patients may be more likely to ask their doctors for advice, which will force doctors to learn more about medical cannabis. You might not be aware that medical schools don’t teach cannabis medicine so often doctors know little more than they have seen on TV or the internet.
Even when products are carefully regulated and tested by states, testing facilities are being discovered to have inaccurate reports. Levels of THC and CBD are often drastically under or over reported, or worse, have inaccurate results for contaminants like mold, heavy metals, or pesticides.
With a strong medical program, there will remain a market for patient focused, safe products.
Convenience
There are ways that having a strong medical cannabis program can make life easier for patients who struggle with everyday tasks that the average person does not. People who use cannabis for medicine are often fatigued, have poor mobility, or just don’t want to be social.
Easier Access
With a robust medical program, there may be an easier road to getting the state legislators to allow home delivery. Even if delivery is restricted to only those who have a medical certification, this will make it so they don’t have to struggle to get to the dispensary and back.
Product Strength
Some state medical cannabis programs allow patients to access products that have greater potency. Maryland, an Adult-Use medical state, only allows customers with a medical certification to purchase concentrate products, or those with high potency.
Many states only allow edibles to be sold in packages with a maximum of 100 mg. of THC per pack or 10 mg. of THC per piece.
This may not sound like a big deal for you, but if you are a patient that has to take 200 to 300 mg. of THC a day, that would be a lot of gummies you would have to eat. Some states allow medical card holders to purchase packs of 500 mg. Or 50 mg. per piece.
In addition, some states put a cap on how much you can buy at one time, forcing you to have to return more frequently if your daily dosage is significantly higher than the average consumer. This is tough because many patients have a hard enough time making it to the dispensary, so making multiple trips can be more of a burden.
Home Growing
Many states, but not all, with medical cannabis programs allow for home cultivation. Home cannabis cultivation is important for many reasons, including knowing what is in your medicine.
If you have to purchase your cannabis medicine from a dispensary, you may not know if it was grown organically, if it is even the cultivar (strain) it says it is, or if the test results for contaminants are accurate.
Many patients find the cannabis they grow is more effective for symptom relief, and it is believed that this is due to the deeper connection the patient has with the plant.
We will discuss cost implications at the end of the article, but, home-growing allows patients to save up to 70% or more of the cost of buying cannabis medicine from a dispensary.
Out-of-State Reciprocity
When traveling to states that only allow medical cannabis sales, having a medical card from your state often allows you to purchase in this medical-only state.
Some medical states do not allow reciprocity, or for non-state residents to enter, much less purchase from a medical dispensary. If medical programs were standardized, it may be more likely medical states would allow reciprocity.
Many people who need their cannabis medicine daily may either not travel to these states, or put themselves in legal jeopardy by bringing their own cannabis with them.
Consistency
Consistency is another issue for many patients. You go to a dispensary and find a cultivar, or a product/brand that helps you with the symptoms you most need help with, and on your next visit, it is gone.
This is a product of commercialization and fad-trends. Many dispensaries feel they must carry the hottest, newest products, often with the highest THC, to meet the demands of their recreational customers. This means, lower THC, more medically focused products tend not to be available on a consistent basis.
Imagine going to your pharmacy and they tell you, “Well, we don’t have your regular blood pressure medication today, but hey, why don’t you try this new mediation everyone is talking about? It’s Fire!”
This is another reason why home-grow is important. If patients find a cultivar (variety or strain) of cannabis that works for them, they can grow it themselves indefinitely!
Legal Implications
There are many situations where having a medical cannabis program can benefit you legally.
Employment/School Protections
Many states, including my home state of Virginia, have provisions that protect those who have a medical cannabis certification from being discriminated against by their employers or schools.
Even though Virginia has an Adult-Use program, only those with a medical certification are protected from being fired for having cannabis in their system. Cannabis can remain detectable in your system for 30 days or longer.
Expungements
Having non-violent cannabis criminal offenses may be easier to get expunged, or erased, from your record if you have a medical certification. This determination often comes down to the individual judge, and with more justifications, your case will be stronger.
Cost
One of the biggest benefits to having a medical cannabis certification program is cost savings for patients. Some early-legal-adoption states had cheaper prices for medical cannabis than for adult-use, and most have lower or no taxes for those registered for the state medical program.
This can be a big savings for a population of people (patients) who typically spend more on medical cannabis than the average customer. In some cases where an 8 to 10% reduction of taxes is allowed, patients can save quite a bit of money over the course of a year.
The more vocal medical cannabis advocates get, it may even be possible to get a separate pricing tier from the typical consumer, or have medically designated dispensaries that don’t incur fees and taxes that are as high as adult-use dispensaries, allowing them to pass the savings on to the patients.
Insurance
Some states, such as New York, are beginning to see the benefits of cannabis medicine and are allowing, if not mandating insurers to cover cannabis as a prescription drug. As mentioned before, cannabis patients can require high daily doses, especially for serious conditions like cancer and MS, which means huge expenditures out of pocket.
Compared to many prescription drugs, cannabis can be cheaper and involve much fewer side effects that require other expensive medications or treatments.
Rolling It Up
Because the medical cannabis advocates were the ones to initiate and facilitate the cannabis legalization that has started to unfold in this and other countries, it is important that their/our interests are given equality, if not priority.
As evidenced above, there are a multitude of benefits to patients, businesses, governments, and society to implementing and preserving strong, financially supported medical cannabis programs.
There are many market segments and reasons why people use cannabis, but those using cannabis for medicine should not be on an equal level with those using it for entertainment.
Support your local NORML branch and any medical cannabis advocate groups you feel are furthering the cause. Feel free to reach out to us if you have questions about anything cannabis.
