This week, the case of an 80-year-old grandmother in Michigan who was sent to jail because she had a personal quantity of cannabis in her own home \u2014 and her state medical marijuana card had expired \u2014 has sparked a national conversation about harmful cannabis laws.<\/p>\n
In states with legal medical marijuana programs, patients are usually required to renew their medical marijuana cards. But this is a much more difficult process than getting a standard prescription renewed through your doctor\u2019s office. Keeping medical marijuana paperwork in order can be a challenge for those already burdened with disabling health conditions.<\/p>\n
Delores Saltzman of Claire County \u2014 who suffers from arthritis and diverticulitis (stomach tract inflammation), as well as chronic muscle and bone aches \u2014 told local\u00a0FOX 17<\/a>\u00a0that cannabis saved her life, allowing her to eat and get through daily pain.<\/p>\n But, on the evening of June 13, Saltzman\u2019s troubles began, when a sheriff\u2019s deputy knocked on her door \u2014 on business completely unrelated to cannabis. The deputy was trying to locate Saltzman\u2019s great-granddaughter and return her lost phone and ID. But the deputy smelled cannabis from Saltzman\u2019s porch, and inquired about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI told her it was mine,\u201d Saltzman said the news channel, stressing that she was completely honest with the deputy.<\/p>\n Court records indicate that the deputy seized four joints and one jar with an undisclosed quantity of cannabis, as well as several pipes. Saltzman told FOX 17 that the quantity was less than an eighth of an ounce. Saltzman said the deputy also searched her bedroom and took pictures inside her home.<\/p>\n Saltzman was then\u00a0handcuffed and placed in the deputy\u2019s patrol car. She spent the night in the county jail. Saltzman was released the next morning, and the charges against her were dropped when she appeared before a Clare County judge on Aug. 2.<\/p>\n However, Clare County Sheriff John Wilson in a statement to FOX 17 offered this\u00a0defense of his deputy: \u201cWhat the person was doing was illegal, had she renewed her medical marijuana card she would have been fine. I agree with the action of the prosecutor\u2019s office and allowing the subject to renew her card, thus dismissing the case. The person was illegally in possession of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n Saltzman\u2019s renewed medical marijuana card is now apparently on its way and she is urging her fellow Michiganders to approve the\u00a0cannabis legalization measure<\/a>\u00a0that will be on the state ballot in November.<\/p>\n However, the question remains: Why should someone like Saltzman, with a chronic illness such as arthritis, be required to keep renewing her medical marijuana card?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s consider Michigan as an example, as their laws are similar to many other states with medical marijuana programs.<\/p>\n In Michigan, medical marijuana cards expire every two years, and it requires a \u201cPatient Fee\u201d of $60 to renew, as well as proof of Michigan residency and a \u201cPhysician Certification Form.\u201d Of course, a physician\u2019s visit is an additional financial cost for patients.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also not a quick process to receive a medical marijuana card renewal. The\u00a0Michigan Medical Marihuana Program<\/a>\u00a0is a state registry under the\u00a0Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation<\/a>, which is in turn under the\u00a0Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs<\/a>. Its website makes all too clear how a patient could end up in Saltzman\u2019s position. It provides a number to call \u201c[i]f you submitted an application more than five (5) weeks ago and have not received a response from our office.\u201d Yet it also states that a \u201crenewal application will only be accepted within 60 days prior to the card\u2019s expiration date.\u201d<\/p>\n While the specific details vary from state to state, most other medical marijuana programs place a similar bureaucratic and financial burden on patients. Under the\u00a0Oregon Medical Marijuana Program<\/a>, a card is only good for a year and costs a fee of $200 \u2014 plus an additional $200 for a patient\u2019s designated grower, if they have one. This is, of course, on top of physician\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n With Oregon\u2019s general legalization of cannabis, one would think approval for the medical program is less of an issue. But medical marijuana providers have been\u00a0effectively left out<\/a>\u00a0of the commercial system of \u201crecreational\u201d cannabis established by the state\u2019s 2014 legalization initiative.<\/p>\n In California, legal space for \u201ccompassionate care\u201d providers, who give cannabis to free to ailing patients, has\u00a0similarly been left out<\/a>\u00a0of the state\u2019s new \u201cadult use\u201d regulations \u2014 though California does not require patients to have a state card to participate in the medical marijuana program.<\/p>\n However, patients must hold a state-issued medical marijuana card in order to receive an exemption from the state sales tax. The\u00a0California Department of Public Health<\/a>\u00a0only issued 6,172\u00a0Medical Marijuana Identification Cards<\/a>\u00a0in 2017, according to the\u00a0East Bay Express<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and that\u2019s in a state of 38 million people. However, counties and municipalities may issue cards which are necessary to purchase medicinal cannabis locally, in addition to the required doctor\u2019s recommendation. A primary caregiver\u2019s card will also expire when the patient\u2019s card does, regardless of whether its own year has run out.<\/p>\n In Colorado, where a state card also expires after one year, the Kafkaesque experience of renewing a medical marijuana application\u00a0was vividly described in the\u00a0Colorado Springs Independent<\/a>\u00a0by journalist Cyndy Kulp \u2014 herself a registered medical marijuana user of eight years. The state\u2019s\u00a0Medical Marijuana Registry<\/a>\u00a0is maintained by the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cMaintaining my status with the state as a patient has required planning,\u201d Kulp writes. \u201cMMJ cards, or red cards as they\u2019re commonly known, are only good for one year, so I\u2019ve had to think ahead, and schedule a medical exam well before my card\u2019s expiration date.\u201d<\/p>\n And digitization, which many patients had hoped would streamline the process, has in Kulp\u2019s view only made matters worse. She related with exasperation: \u201cIn the early days, patients applied\u2026on paper forms that needed to be filled out perfectly, including in the right color of ink. The process (which is still available) involved getting a money order for the state fee, cash for the doctor, and going to a post office to send the forms by certified mail (the procedure recommended by the companies that perform MMJ evaluations). Patients then waited four to six weeks for their card to arrive. If there was a problem, like incorrect information on the form, they started over again and waited another four to six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n This \u201cold school\u201d approach was \u201cbegging for an upgrade,\u201d Kulp acknowledges.<\/p>\n But the upgrade has worked out poorly, thanks to a \u201cdifficult-to-navigate online renewal system.\u201d<\/p>\n Being \u201cfairly computer literate,\u201d Kulp said she thought to herself, \u201cHow hard can it be?\u201d Yet soon, \u201cthis typically unwieldy government site had me stumped and I was unable to proceed. The online directions didn\u2019t help much, so I looked for a phone number for technical assistance. No luck there, the line was always busy.\u201d<\/p>\n Kulp wraps up by noting that in Colorado too, the medical marijuana program has not outlived its function despite a general legalization of cannabis. While statewide numbers for enrolled medical marijuana patients have been dropping since legalization (approved by the voters in 2012) took effect in January 2014. However, the opposite trend is seen in her own El Paso County, where Colorado Springs is located. In this more conservative part of the state, legal cannabis is still not readily available.<\/p>\n \u201cWith only two recreational stores in Manitou Springs serving the entire county, the stores are crowded with locals and tourists,\u201d Kulp writes. \u201cStaffers can\u2019t be expected to help patients with their medical questions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s hope the state does improve the system,\u201d Kulp signs off. \u201cEspecially in El Paso County, where recreational marijuana is in short supply, it\u2019s important to keep medical marijuana available to a growing patient population.\u201d<\/p>\n But the experience of Colorado, California and Oregon provide a warning to medicinal users in places like Michigan who are looking to \u201crecreational\u201d legalization for relief. Legalization may be a step in the right direction, but it isn\u2019t always sufficient to meet the needs of medical marijuana patients.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>,\u00a0are you a medical marijuana patient? Do you have to renew your card?<\/p>\n The post Why Do You Need to Renew Your Medical Marijuana Card?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
This week, the case of an 80-year-old grandmother in Michigan who was sent to jail because she had a personal quantity of cannabis in her own home \u2014 and her state medical marijuana card had expired \u2014 has sparked a national conversation about harmful cannabis laws. In states with legalContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1993,5298,148,50,3865,638,21,5299,5300,2458,5301,4455,5302,5303,179,5173,5304,5305,185,5306,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28406,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28405\/revisions\/28406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Medical Marijuana Card Renewal: A Bureaucratic Burden on the Ailing<\/h4>\n
The Post-Legalization Dilemma For Medical Marijuana Program<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Why Do You Need to Renew Your Medical Marijuana Card?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"