Medical Marijuana Patients Hung Out To Dry

[Katelyn Baker]

Letters to the Editor

It is time for a new vote on medical marijuana: We need to use our vote to address the continued worthiness of the band of politicians who disassembled a working medical-marijuana system and have not gotten around to addressing how to replace it ["State's pot database up and running after IT glitch threatens to delay its launch," Local News, July 1].

I'm a 68-year-old retired Marine who's had five spinal surgeries. Cannabidiol (CBD)-based products have provided pinched nerve pain relief for two years and have allowed me to shelve hydrocodone. When it was proposed to meld medical and recreational stores into single retail outlets, I asked my legislators what assurance I had that the products I used would still be available. I was suspicious because many medical-specific products, such as CBD creams and ointments, have no recreational value. So now those products just aren't available to me anymore.

I'm appalled at the ho-hum response that it will just be a few months before this all gets settled out. I'd like one of those blasé politicians to spend a couple months with a mess of pinched nerves and see how "ho-hum" their world is.

Recreational users have an option: miss a purchase and just don't have fun that weekend. Medical users miss a purchase and suffer. So back to hydrocodone for me - you know, those opioids the same politicians are wringing their hands about because of their addictive properties. I have been hung out to dry - but I can still vote.

-Dave Braaten, Tacoma

News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Medical Marijuana Patients Hung Out To Dry
Author: Dave Braaten
Contact: The Seattle Times
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: The Seattle Times

 

[GirlGunner]

Yes we have been hung out to dry. We used to be able to maintain a 60 day supply and now, if you don't register with the State, you get four plants and have to defend yourself in Court. With WA being so liberal, I worry that the States database will be used at some point to take my gun rights away because the perception of addiction and firearm ownership. Even as talks lean towards rescheduling to a class 2 for marijuana, that doesn't help me out much in maintaining employment in law enforcement or using firearms on my farm shooting predatory animals. I have not been able to find low THC/high CBD MJ in my small local recreational store. According to them, it doesn't sell.