USA Regs For Medical Use of Cannabis

2009.04.03

Many questions abound about the medical use of marijuana, not its benefits, but the rules that apply to it from state to state. For instance, did you know that only in Montana can you be a medical marijuana user from another state, and not be arrested if you have your permit?

It’s true that in other states, you can be a user of medical marijuana, and, even though you have your permit, the authorities can arrest you according to the laws of that state. Each state’s medical marijuana law allows the patient to grow process and use of marijuana, or cannabis, and that there is support groups in every state that helps trade and give out plants as well as medicine?

However, what qualifies for medical marijuana? There are many ailments and diseases that pot helps, by alleviating the pain from such things as cancer, glaucoma, sclerosis, AIDS, gastrointestinal disorders, etc., etc. Getting a permit can cost around $25.00 and the Doctor pays that to the state, but for California and Washington State, there is no state registry. Oregon is $100 per year, and Colorado is $90, and in Hawaii, it’s $25, so it varies.

There are also certain states that will give you a medical marijuana permit only if you have certain diseases like Crohn’s, Asthma. IBS, Parkinson’s, Glaucoma, AIDS/HIV, Multiple sclerosis., etc.,, and those states are Michigan, Colorado, Nevada, Washington, California, Montana, and Hawaii, so getting a permit for the medical use of marijuana or cannabis isn’t universal all over the U.S., it’s different from state to state, the same as the diseases you can get a permit for

The battle for getting a permit for the medical use of cannabis or marijuana has been a long one and it took a lot of fighting even to be heard on a topic that was associated with being a pothead, the argument being that needing pot for your health was an excuse to be nothing more than an addict. Nevertheless, over time, even the Doctors who were against the whole argument of medical marijuana, had to concede once the evidence over time was undeniable. Glaucoma was the spearhead disease that led the way to marijuana being recognized as a medicinal drug.

Hopefully, in the future, the same kind of ground- breaking decisions will be reached when it comes to what diseases can and can’t be treated with cannabis, and hopefully there will be a state wide agreement reached as to the allowing of the use of marijuana for medical purposes in other states when you are not from that state.

For those who have a hard time accepting change, the fallout is that they make it difficult for others as well, so that there has to be a mountain of proof for the need of change, combined with enough public awareness, and opinion, but, ultimately, it is the people who really need the change that must suffer.