Part 2: Just up from Doc420 on Melrose is a MedMJ outlet that says “discount,” so after renewing my prescription with Dr. Patel I decided to try them out. To register with a dispensary you bring the original of your MedMJ card, the gold embossed sealed award-looking item that Dr. Patel gave me at the end of our yearly appointment. This card would be hard to counterfeit, and too much trouble anyway, since it is not that difficult or costly to go to a doctor and get a card for yourself in the first place. It is good for one year. (See My trip to Medical marijuana doctor, previous post )
You have to bring the original card from the doctor with you at the dispensary. There is usually a lobby area near the front door. You give them your doctor’s card and photo ID and then wait while they phone in and verify that you are who you say you are and the MedMJ card is legitimate. Once you've qualified they will keep your info on file, so you can return the original card back home. Keep a photocopy of it on you all the time though, especially if, like me, you often smoke out in public, as you may have to show your card to a security guard or police officer.
Dr. Patel’s card includes her 888 number where police and security guards can call 24 hours a day to verify that you are genuinely a patient, not a drug dealer determined to resell your medicine to kids in elementary schools. At Discount Patient Access Center they do sell medicine a little cheaper than other stores around town. They also have a unique hasheesh with powder concentrate in it - I’ve seen this powder concentrate before, don't know what it’s called. It came out in 2006, I think, and I used to buy it then, but it is hard to keep it burning, PLUS, it was constantly spilling, and there you go, ten dollars worth of medicine fallen into the rug...
The product they sell at Discount cannabis outlet on Melrose, is a kind of hash with this gold powder mixed in. You break off a small piece and add it to your pipe. It increases the strength of the medicine, so you only need to take, maybe a half puff, and that's all you need for hours. I truly believe until they find a better way to “deliver” the medicine to the body other than burning it and inhaling it - we have to try to find the most potent strains possible, so that a sick person does not end up getting sicker with lung disease from smoking medicine. So I really like new product s like this tarry hash with gold powder. When I add it to my pipe, the one bowl lasts all day, and I know it is better for my lungs, to just inhale a tiny puff, hold it, and then not inhale any more smoke for several hours.
It’s a good idea to register with several different dispensaries as there are still problems with DEA agents raiding MedMJ outlets, although not so much within the city limits of LA, more in the suburbs. Never in West Hollywood anymore. Good idea to register with some outlets in West Hollywood as they will never be forced to close by the feds in West Hollywood.
Hopefully as the new Department of Justice starts to reflect its new boss, President Barak Obama, and new Attorney General, Eric Holder, we'll stop seeing federal raids on medical marijuana outlets.
I mean, it’s not like there aren’t more serious federal level crimes going on in Los Angeles - human trafficking and sex slavery, gangs that use home invasions to finance their projects and intimidate entire neighborhoods, military secrets flying out of LAX in briefcases --
Prop 215, as passed by the people of California in 1996, states anyone with medical conditions that benefit from marijuana is allowed to use cannabis in its many forms in California. Truth is all these cards and licenses and new branches of medical offices opening around town aren’t necessary by the nature of the law. The Compassionate Use Initiative was designed to create a libertarian freedom around marijuana in the state. If you have almost any medical condition, you have a right to use marijuana in California.
We have in this state a reverence for privacy rights, as in - it’s my body and it’s none of your business what I do with it. Or - It’s my privacy right to use whatever medicine works for me and my health is between me and my doctor, not me and the local police. Unfortunately in the real world the dispensing of any strong medicine has to be regulated. So I go along and get my card every year and buy local, never resell to my friends no matter how much they beg me.
What's news is these shops thrive around town. What's also news is the activist groups meet with City Council committees and iron out the specifics to create those necessary rules and regulations and licenses and oversight that is necessary in a civilized society. I look forward to the day when it takes as much effort to buy weed as it does to buy liquor, and teenagers and drug addicts are so motivated by a thriving society with lots of upward mobility that they don’t end up wanting to sit around getting loaded. Marijuana wouldn't have been put on earth if there wasn’t a use for it. Not an abuse, a use.
(Personal note: I have PTSD from being a crime victim, so the reasons I use MedMJ are both physical and mental. Probably there is a better treatment, and if I could stop work and just rest - spend time in Yoga and massage and heat treatment and ANGER MANAGEMENT - I would not need to use MedMJ. But I have three jobs, chronic pain, and invasive memories that, if I let them come all the way into my head, incapacitate me. I’ll be in the ladies room on the floor in the corner crying and shaking before I even know it. I wonder how many people use Medical Marijuana for Anger Management and Depression. How much violent crime could be prevented, if we only let violent people have access to medical marijuana. I mean, can you think of a better drug to use to keep your temper and bad moods down? )
Contact Kay Ebeling at cityofangelslady@yahoo.com
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Comments
Hi,
I noticed you said smoking your medicine is not the best method of ingestion. Might I suggest you purchase a vaporizer for much much more healthy results. Ask at your local dispensary if you don't know what a vaporizer is or does.
weeeeeeeeeeeeeed
Very good read. Enjoyed it, very informative and detailed. I too am a MM Patient in the Valley. I would add that yes I AGREE you need to register with a few different co-ops, dont just stick with 1, because if that 1 closes down and you have to reverify and your doctor changes his phone number or the referral company no longer exists as which happened to me, you wont be screwed, youll have a few places until your reccomendation is up instead of getting a new one from another doctor.
Peace :)
Thanks for the heads up about the hash. I guess I still dont know how hash is made. What is the best bud around right now?
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