News Jul 6, 2016 at 4:00 am

On July 1, Washington State's medical marijuana market disappeared. Here's why the most needy patients will likely suffer.

A life or death situation: Meagan Holt worries that recreational stores won’t carry the full plant extract oil that her daughter, Madeline, relies on to control her seizures. Michael Scott

Comments

1
Leave it to the state to take a progressive idea like legalizing medical marijuana and then screw it up completely.

All they care about is making as much tax money as possible for doing as little work as possible, they don't care if children die because people can no longer legally buy the medicine their children need to live. This is NOT what people voted for.

Remember how they completely botched the alcohol business? These morons couldn't run a business if their lives depended on it so don't be fooled, especially if you or someone you care about needs a now illegal marijuana derivative to live. Do what's right for you and yours, go black market, to hell with the state.

3
Little Maddie needs medicine and some of us are dedicated to making sure she NEVER runs out. Inslee needs to clean house and replace LCB with smart, compassionate people not morons.
4
Thank you for sharing Meagan and Maddie Holt's story. They are representative of many patients in Washington state that are suffering from the laws that the legislature have set forth. We have been fighting for cannabis freedom for over 5 years in Olympia, and they refuse to listen to us. NOW they will realize that those they called "fakers" will be getting sicker and dying. You can bet that they will hear about that. The stories are already pouring into their offices, including Inslee's. He refuses to hear us. So many of these politicians are up for election. They better start finding a new career, if patients have anything to do with it.
5
I'm not seeing a shortage of CBD products in retail stores, and I shop for them frequently. Prices for all marijuana products are currently lower than they were on the black market 5 years ago. The weed I'm buying now is also better quality, and I don't have to guess about the strain or potency. I suppose if I had grown accustomed to free weed/oil from a supplier, I'd probably be upset about losing that connection too.
The truth is the medicine is even more available, and affordable, than ever. You don't need a fake card from a fake doctor (no legit MD would ever recommend smoking anything), and you don't have to wonder about the dozens of other very healthy young adults who are "filling a prescription".
You can get your medicine over the fucking counter now! Stop complaining about not getting free weed anymore!
6
I am an I 502 producer. I will personally guarantee Maddie's supply of medicine through the system. Sam Wayne Smith or Our Church International, LLC on Facebook with a PM.
7
It's sad as I see a person reading this story saying things are fine. If they were fine there'd be no story. We wish there were no story, but sadly there are issues still unresolved and true medical patients that are NOT receiving the medication they use to be able to access and there are folks that do not have the resources to pay the pricing necessary for the amount of medicine they need for their conditions even if that kind of medicine were available to them...

This has nothing to do about smoking some weed, it's about a human right to proper health care; certainly patients that had been able to secure/obtain medicine legally, on a state level, going back to the 1998 initiative - I-692 or the Medical Use of Marijuana Act, should be able to access their medicine today without issue, however, because of the legislative changes many patients have lost their medicine going back six months or so as the changes the legislators implemented last year.
Time for Positive Change folks! Please be part of this change! Please learn more of what is going on in our state. Please check out our website for updates here: www.projectpc.org

Also here is a little slideshow of June 30th protest to said changes:
https://youtu.be/tSWEH-mD0wE
8
As a patient, I'm seeing some CDB products on the market, but not any of the ones I know work, and none in the dosages I need. Certainly not at anywhere near to what I can afford on a paycheck that hasn't grown anywhere near as fast as my rent. I'm realizing my only real option in the short term it to buy activated concentrate and make my own infused coconut oil to make edibles at the dosage I need to keep myself pain-free and the joints moving.

This is why we need to get serious about a progressive income tax at the state level, instead of making up budget short-falls on the backs of patients.
9
I am a patient who successfully transitioned from years of opiate use to mmj. I live with chronic pain due to a rare form of arthritis.

There are no stores currently operating that provide the quantity or quality I could get at my usual dispensary.

For example: An infused edible containing 70mg of THC and CBD cost around $5 to $10 per edible. I could get organic, high quality medicine. If, for whatever reason, I needed to know more about a particular product, the answer was usually a phone call away to the manufacturer.

Now, to get the same dose with the same quality would cost around $45. There is no comparison.

I am now back on the dreaded opiates because of 5052. It is completely laughable to claim there is more medicine available now.

I'm looking forward to the day the first 502 operator goes out of business because of the flourishing black market that is stepping up to fill the void left by the profiteers who chose profits over patients.

Most of us don't use medical cannabis to get high, we use medical cannabis to get by.
10
This is why we need a home grow provision Tobias, for all of us. You know this is truth. All this little girl needs is a good CBD strain grown with love to perfection and extracted RSO style with some 99% medical grade alcohol -which can be found anywhere and is safe to use. You should make this your priority. You should become the lobbyist for a free world. Just Imagine the day when we can all get stoned and heal ourselves and our communities locally where it really makes a difference, and without the threat of the historic BS that surrounds us all. In a perfect world I'll grow one strain and you can grow another, and we'll share our success with each other. Come on! We are not talking about rocket science here. We're in need of flower power. Let's set the flower free...

I know! I know! F'in hippies...
11
I would guess that a major hurdle to legitimizing CBD as a therapeutic is that there is little evidence of its efficacy beyond the anecdotal. Clinical trials and real science should have been the focus all this time and in the future. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27354…
12
I'm sure there's a lot improvements that need to be made to the state cannabis laws, but this article is mostly conjecture. Clearly, not all patients are getting their CBD for free, or else there either already wouldn't be any available, or there would be a well established charity system to provide funding for it. The excise tax is an issue and should be reduced and possibly eliminated altogether for patients.

But really I don't think we should assume that retail stores can't pick up the CBD demand- all those patients that want CBD are would-be customers that retail stores will want to attract. If high-CBD production is the limiting factor, as implied in the article, then wasn't that already an issue before the closing of medical facilities? What would have changed between then and now? Why would it be available on the black market but not the white market?

And I'd think that, once Meagan can obtain the high-CBD oil (through official channels) she needs for her daughter, she'll appreciate the stricter labeling and testing standards that are required of product in retail shops.
13
Where can she go, right now, to obtain the medicine? Will she be able to talk to someone other than a frat bro at that store? Will the store have direct contact with the grower and or manufacturer?

Let's just say she wanders into Ikes. What are those greedheads going to do for her other than suggest a strain that'll get her high? Nothing, that's what.

No retail location in the state will be able to help this child. None. Zero.

5052 is hurting, not helping.
14
@13 Aren't a number of the old medical dispensaries now converted to retail shops? I'd think those are run by the same people. I know Dockside is (they ran a coop before their retail shops). Why go to Ike's if they can go talk to people who were running medical shop before?
15
Yes, the loss of medical cannabis is a tragedy. The state did not think any of us were really sick, I presume. Maddy's case is a prime example of the damage done. There are some dispensaries/shops that are or are going to be medical and recreational both. In order to get medical strength THC products, such as FECO or tinctures, one must have a Drs. recommendation AND have one's name on the State registry list. (Or, in this case, the caregiver would). There is one medical dispensary that survived at the last minute that I know of. I suggest Meagan contact them. I hope they can help, but at the very least they will doubtless know where to send her. The name is the Center for Palliative Care, they are in Seattle, and their website is thecpc.org. Also, I did read that CBD alone of whatever strength does not require registration, etc. but of course the problem is availability. Best wishes.
17
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