So how does one go about getting a medical marijuana card anyway?

[Duer 157099]

Will any doctor (in California) sign off on this if there is an appropriate medical condition?

Or, is it a cottage industry, that only *special* doctors will do so?

Does Kaiser, say, have any policy on this?

[brewens]

1. I know it used to be in Oregon that someone would tell you

who the agreeable Dr's were. Then it didn't take much. I know a guy that had pulled a muscle in his back once a few years before he applied. He had to get the medical records from that injury. It was a short term L&I claim. He said he had chronic back pain ever since and got his card.

[Duer 157099]

2. It's the "someone" part that confuses me

I don't know anyone who would know.

What's the risk in just asking my regular doctor? He knows my condition(s), what possible reasons could he have for saying no?

[Webster Green]

5. Some of them won't do it.

They're still caught up in the hysteria that started in 1937 and, of course, persists today, regardless of all the new information.

The "cottage industry" docs will take just about any complaint and find it worthy. They have huge billboards on the freeways advertising their services.

To some, this is considered taking advantage of the law. I disagree, because cannabis is good for damn near any affliction you can think of. You use it because your back hurts, or you're depressed, or whatever. There's a real fine line between medicinal and recreational use, which is OK by me. It's just a great all-around herb!

It's going to be legal for recreational use very soon anyway, so it's all good! :hippie:

[Duer 157099]

7. Well I've just decided that I'm going to press my doctor HARD if he resists

Now it's becoming a principle with me, and I will read him the fucking riot act if he balks at this and yet he whips his Rx pad out in a nanosecond for anything Merck et al make. He knows I do my research, I will nail his ass if he objects.

I feel better now, now that I'm resolved.

[Webster Green]

8. Totally!

To deny the benefits of cannabis is just regressive thinking.

I think some doctors disapprove of the "cottage industry docs", who are obviously doing double duty as cannabis activists.

They feel that since it is so easy to get a recommendation, pot is all but legal here for recreational use now. I guess maybe they disapprove of that.

To me, it's remarkable that what is perhaps the most useful plant known to man is demonized because it can be pleasurable to smoke it or eat it or drink it.

All because some fascist fucking federal agent did a big anti-pot propaganda campaign in the 30s. That and the fact that textile, paper, plastics and other industries felt threatened by the hemp variety of cannabis because it could replace all their chemical crappola.

Don't get me going though.


:hippie:

[Webster Green]

9. Here's an article from the latest 'North Bay Bohemian' on this subject

This may interest you.

http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/04.21.10/news-1016.html

[Webster Green]

3. There is a cottage industry, but any doctor can do the recommendation.

My regular doc wrote mine. Then I had to go to the county office and apply for the state card.

It costs $100 or something, and you have to do it every year. That's the pain in the ass part.

Once you have the card, a whole new world opens up. You can walk into any number of places and buy the best pot on the planet,
or a bunch of clones, or brownies or whatever. They also sell all kinds of growing accessories and supplies. One of the local dispensaries is the size of a huge warehouse.
They have really hot babes to guide you around, and show you all the wonderful goodies.

I love Northern California. It's one of the most beautiful and civilized places on the planet. :smoke:

[Duer 157099]

6. Yeah, I looked that up, it's 160 or 180 per year for the card, what bullshit!

I'm going to talk to my doc about it next time I see him. I've been thinking about this lately, and it really goes to show how utterly brainwashed I've allowed myself to become, that it's taken me this long to even *consider* thinking about it, even though I've certainly qualified for many, many years.

I fucking hate our society so much.

I don't even think once, much less twice, about trying any BIG PHARMA med my docs have prescribed over the years, and yet, the thought that pot might actually be much more appropriate just never even occured to me until recently. And I spent plenty of years using pot when I was younger, so it's not that I'm naive. It's just that the whole drug war mentality is so heavily ingrained.

[tridim]

4. My primary reason isn't covered by the law, so I inquired about my secondary issue.

Chronic shoulder and upper back pain. I don't take narcotic pain killers and Cannabis definitely helped in the past. My doctor agreed and recommended Cannabis.

Sleep and stress relief are my prime reasons for using Cannabis as medicine. It works like nothing else.