{"id":726,"date":"2016-03-07T18:31:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T18:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?p=726"},"modified":"2018-07-16T05:14:46","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T12:14:46","slug":"thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking About Marijuana as Medicine? Where to Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

The prospect of marijuana as medicine is still a relatively new concept to mainstream America. \u00a0How do you get a marijuana prescription, anyway?<\/em>\u00a0 That’s the million dollar question.<\/p>\n

Marijuana As Medicine?<\/h2>\n

It’s a question cannabis industry professionals<\/a> are no doubt asked at parties, in coffee shops and, discreetly, by other parents on the soccer field sidelines.<\/p>\n

But here’s the thing: marijuana is not prescribed and filled at a pharmacy like antibiotics or other painkillers<\/a>. So where do you start then?<\/p>\n

Marijuana Laws<\/h3>\n

Usually you get a prescription<\/a>\u00a0and you drop it at a\u00a0pharmacy to be filled. Although often used as medicine, this is not the case with marijuana. Marijuana is, at the federal level, a schedule 1 drug<\/a>. That’s right, the DEA still considers marijuana to be in “the most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and\/or physical dependence.”<\/p>\n

At the state level, however, legislation approved by voters and lawmakers has made it possible for adults over the age of 18 to grow and consume marijuana for personal, medicinal and, in some states, recreational use. Because marijuana is still illegal nationally, however, pharmacies like Walgreens can’t touch the stuff. \u00a0These big pharmacies are registered with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and must abide by the regulations posted by the agency.<\/p>\n

Legal Marijauna<\/h3>\n

So in states where it’s legal, doctors don’t really\u00a0prescribe pot. Doctors can, however, recommend marijuana as medicine. And that’s what patients use in lieu of the more common prescription for medication.<\/p>\n

Pain is the leading ailment cited by patients recommended marijuana, according to<\/a> University of California Davis Medical Center’s Dr. Barth Wilsey. Chronic pain conditions like nerve pain or glaucoma and diseases like cancer can cause debilitating pain. Our bodies already produce chemicals naturally to affect pain and, for many, marijuana “can help make those natural chemicals work better.” Those suffering from pain or other ailments like nausea, muscle spasms, seizure disorders, or anxiety can talk to their general practitioner about marijuana as medicine or search for qualified health care professionals that embrace marijuana as medicine in states where allowed.<\/p>\n

Marijuana can be recommended by a doctor in states that allow it. Patients can take medical recommendations, sometimes just called recs<\/em>, to a local dispensary<\/a> to purchase marijuana and – hopefully – to speak with a qualified dispensary technician about the strains<\/a> that may be best suited to address their health and wellness concerns.<\/p>\n

After receiving a doctor’s recommendation some states will also require that patients register for a Medical Marijuana Identification Card.<\/p>\n

It’s important to know your local and state laws and general tone of acceptance around marijuana. NORML.org<\/a> has this interactive reference guide here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marijuana as medicine can be a sticky subject. Conflicting opinions, outdated laws and bias are just a few details you can overcome with this article!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[45,77,89,34,83,44,47],"yoast_head":"\nThinking About Marijuana as Medicine? Where to Start | Medical Cannabis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Marijuana as medicine can be a sticky subject. Conflicting opinions, outdated laws and bias are just a few details you can overcome with this article!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thinking About Marijuana as Medicine? Where to Start | Medical Cannabis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Marijuana as medicine can be a sticky subject. Conflicting opinions, outdated laws and bias are just a few details you can overcome with this article!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dispensaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-07T18:31:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-16T12:14:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@dispensariescom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/\",\"name\":\"Thinking About Marijuana as Medicine? Where to Start | Medical Cannabis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-07T18:31:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-16T12:14:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\"},\"description\":\"Marijuana as medicine can be a sticky subject. Conflicting opinions, outdated laws and bias are just a few details you can overcome with this article!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thinking About Marijuana as Medicine? Where to Start\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries Editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dispensaries Editor\"},\"description\":\"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thinking About Marijuana as Medicine? Where to Start | Medical Cannabis","description":"Marijuana as medicine can be a sticky subject. Conflicting opinions, outdated laws and bias are just a few details you can overcome with this article!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thinking About Marijuana as Medicine? Where to Start | Medical Cannabis","og_description":"Marijuana as medicine can be a sticky subject. Conflicting opinions, outdated laws and bias are just a few details you can overcome with this article!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/","og_site_name":"Dispensaries","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","article_published_time":"2016-03-07T18:31:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-07-16T12:14:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dispensaries Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@dispensariescom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dispensaries Editor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/","name":"Thinking About Marijuana as Medicine? Where to Start | Medical Cannabis","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-03-07T18:31:10+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-16T12:14:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0"},"description":"Marijuana as medicine can be a sticky subject. Conflicting opinions, outdated laws and bias are just a few details you can overcome with this article!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/thinking-about-marijuana-as-medicine-where-to-start\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thinking About Marijuana as Medicine? Where to Start"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/","name":"Dispensaries","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0","name":"Dispensaries Editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dispensaries Editor"},"description":"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom"],"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2575,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions\/2575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}