As medical director for Medical Cannabis of Southern California I am often asked to explain what the medical marijuana “card” is.  There is a lot of misinformation concerning patients rights under Proposition 215 and what doctors can actually recommend cannabis to patients.

Proposition 215

What Proposition 215 basically said, without boring you to death with minutia,  is that patients who may benefit from the use of cannabis can cultivate, possess and transport cannabis in the state of California as long as a doctor feels that they can benefit from its medicinal effects and gives them a written recommendation.   ANY doctor, MD or DO, can recommend cannabis to a  patient. You MUST have completed medical school to recommend cannabis.   There is no special licensing or additional training that doctors go through to become “cannabis experts.”  However because cannabis is a schedule 1 drug per federal law, it is obviously not taught or mentioned in medical school.  Therefore, most doctors do not understand its pharmacology or effects on the body and do not feel comfortable recommending it to patients.   In most cases they are worried about liability for doing so.   In my case I decided to read everything I possibly could about cannabis and cannabinoids.  I simply immersed myself in the books and more importantly the culture.  I spoke with hundreds of patients about their conditions and how cannabis has affected their lives until I felt comfortable writing recommendations for patients to consume cannabis as a medication.

What is the Marijuana Card?

Now back to my original question.  What is the card?  When California passed Prop 215 they tried to implement a state ID card system to identify patients who doctors recommended cannabis for.  Patients would bring their doctors recommendation to the county office and they would register and pay the fee.  The county then issued them a “card” similar to a drivers license that said they were a legal cannabis patient.  The point was to protect them from law enforcement and prosecution.  The problem was that the program was voluntary and cost patients on average $150.00 annually.   And because most patients did not want to register ANYWHERE, let alone with the state of California, 90% of patients did not voluntarily get the state card.  However, patients still needed access to medicine.   So what developed was a system where some patients had the state card and the rest just used the written recommendation that their doctor issued them to get medicine from the local collective/dispensary.

As a result of this double jointed/parallel system for identifying medical cannabis patients, what some clinics started doing is issuing their own “card” to identify their patients.  The only problem is that these “cards” that doctors are handing out to their patients provide ZERO benefit or protection under the law.  They are simply a marketing ploy to make patients think they are protected by their “special” card.  They provided their patients NO additional benefit over the written recommendation.

Current Medical Marijuana Card System

So what is the system look like as I type this?  Every patient now has to present their WRITTEN RECOMMENDATION when obtaining medicine or interacting with law enforcement.  The “card” in and by itself is useless.  99% of the collectives/dispensaries require patients bring in an original written recommendation from their doctor.   However the “card” is commonly marketed by doctors because that is what the majority of the public thinks they need.  It is however completely false.   In fact the card provides a false sense of security because these clinics tell patients to just keep the card in their wallets and present it to law enforcement.

In conclusion, their remains in place an ID card system started by the state of California.  The ID Cards that doctors offices provide are worthless.  The WRITTEN RECOMMENDATION is the gold standard for patients when using cannabis for medicinal purposes. ANY physician can legally recommend cannabis for their patients.

If you would like more information on whether or not you could benefit from using cannabis please feel free to schedule an appointment to be evaluated in one of my three southern California clinics.  Call 877-721-0047 or visit www.mcsocal.com and pre-qualify for FREE online.