Medical marijuana for an L.A. Times columnist

For a lot of people, the details about medical marijuana can be hazy. Hundreds of dispensaries have grown like weeds around Los Angeles, some of which are open as late as fast-food restaurants (a blessed coincidence). But how does one get a prescription to use this medicine?

Thankfully, L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez broke down part of the process in his column today about his visit to the medical marijuana doctor.

In his account, Lopez educates us about obtaining a marijuana “recommendation” from an obstetrician who had advertised as being someone who could write a script for the controversial bud. 

So the question is: Is Lopez’s account of visiting the doctor an accurate depiction of the experience?

Do you agree with him that we’re better off legalizing the plant? Or do the recreational users who abuse the system need to be, excuse the pun, weeded out?

Our interactive map of L.A. marijuana dispensaries shows which are licensed and which have been denied applications -- it also marks their proximity to schools, parks and libraries. What do you think about the location of these dispensaries? Does it matter that they are so close to schools and public spaces? Or do you consider this much ado about nothing?

-- Kelsey Ramos

Photo: Various strains of medical marijuana sit on a shelf inside Green Oasis, a medical mariujuana dispensary in Los Angeles. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Christine Beatty]

It's nothing less than insane that in the 21st Century we're still treating pot with turn of the (20th) century hysteria. If we were *really* worried about the crime issue associated with substance use we'd bring back prohibition for alcohol, which causes more heartbreak, violence and death than all other drugs combined. But wait! What happened the last time we outlawed booze? Organized crime flourished, people died, our cops got tied up and our taxes were spent trying to enforce "morality" and we were forced to legalize and regulate it again.

So what's happening with pot right now? Organized crime is flourishing, people are dying, our cops are tied up and our taxes are spent trying to enforce "morality." And how deep of a budget hole are we in? And even if only $200M is spent on pot a year in CA, at 25% tax that's $50M we could spend on teacher, roads, healthcare and keep *real* criminals locked up. Oh, yes, and it would be easier to keep pot out of the hands of minors.

So what's the problem? Is the conservative right that much in control of our politics and our society?

[Jeremy Rhodes]

Steve obviously thinks he is providing a service by exposing the lax granting of prescriptions for medical herbs. He is really making life more difficult for those who find relief with the weed.

He reminds me of a journalist who exposed an "illegal" charter flight from the UK some years ago, when the major airlines preserved their monopoly against charter flights by sending out intrepid reporters like Steve to expose the crimes of the "orchid appreciation society", attempting to send their "members" on an illicit flight to Majorca for a holiday.

Thanks to intrepid reporters like Steve, this illicit trade was stamped out, and the profits remained with the major airlines for many years.

Thank you, Steve, for preserving my dividend from the drug companies.

[Dan]

Patients legitimately present in a dispensary to obtain medicine should not have to put up with being stared at or questioned by the press while they do so, it's a gross invasion of a sick person's privacy and should not be tolerated. LA Times should be ashamed of themselves to allow their reported to violate our medical privacy!

Most smart people (and companies) avoid irritating the masses...

[Francisco V.]

If these places had only opened in commercial/industrial zones, there never would have been a problem. But when you open right next to elementary schools, churches, and houses, then of course lots of people are going to get upset. Would you want that right next to your family? Especially considering some of the stoners who go into these places.... The "medical marijuana" folks got greedy and so now htere is a backlash. They should have seen that coming - but maybe they were too stoned to notice....

[Dave Kennedy]

We just need to legalize it. This will generate revenue for the cities, counties and state, it will drastically reduce violence by eliminating the criminal element that deals with selling the product and it will save a ton of money that is spent enforcing draconian laws and keeping people that currently commit victimless crime out of our prison system. This would make room for incarcerating real criminals. Currently, a fortune is being spent trying to regulate "medical marijuna". Legalizing pot would solve a lot of these problems too. Once we legalize pot through legislation, or more than likely through one of the ballot initiatives, the last stumbling block will be getting the Federal laws changed. I feel we will have to drag the Feds through the legalization process because there are few politicians with the guts to stand up and make it happen legislatively. It is pure speculation on my part, but I think President Obama has opened the door. Who is to say that his next position wouldn't be to take a hands-off approach when a state votes to legalize, just like he did with medical marijuana.

I don't smoke marijuana or drink, legalization just makes sense. Marijuana is far more benign than alcohol or tobacco, it's just that marijuana has the "drug" stigma, yet alcohol doesn't. For those that say "we don't need another drug to become legal", I say you are speaking out of total ignorance. When penalties do 100 time more damage to one's life than the "criminal" act itself, something is radically wrong.

Last, for the life of me, why are drugs like codeine, vicodin, etc., legal and marijuana isn't. These medications may provide relief, but the long term damage they do to the body is unbelievable........ think about it.

[Anonymous Dude]

Steve's experience is pretty much true to form...
not much variance..it's in and out and mostly a farce, but such a blessed one!

much ado about nothing. users usually mind their own bidnazz

why highlight pun the second time but not the first?

[Mr. Z]

It's My opinion that Mr. Lopez violated the law see SB420 for penalties regarding obtain a fraudulent Medical Marijuana Recommendation.

From reading the first few lines I felt that Mr. Lopez was making a mockery & joke at the expense of real medical marijuana patients for the sake of selling news papers.

Many people find real relief from medical marijuana that they just can't get with ANY corporate pharmaceutical. Who in their right mind would want to take drugs that have so many side effects when an all natural alternative is available?

Is there a problem with SO MANY dispensaries in LA? You bet there is, but the LA city & county have had more than 11 years to figure out regulations.

LA's problem is one caused by themselves. You can obtain a PHd from any university in the country in the amount of time LA has had to "Figure out how to regulate medical marijuana" but little has been done except for the typical chicken little response from the right. "The sky is falling, our children are at risk, what message are we sending?" The gloom & doom just NEVER been proven, but still they maintain the same old tired song.

What message are you sending to your children with BILLIONS of dollars spent to advertise DRUGS that will give you a hardon, grow hair, do this or cover up that. Or even take this pill to counter the side effect of those pills.

More Children take prescription drugs out of mom & dads stash or alcohol out of the liquor cabinet then use marijuana these days according to the DFA.

Generations of children were raised on Riddalin because a teacher said there were a disturbance in class & needed to calm down. I know that is a FACT because I was one of those children. A teacher told my parents that I needed that drug and they listened. My problem is teachers of that generation did not allow anyone to question them or what was being taught.

Corporate pharmaceuticals, alcohol and other DRUGS with their know side effects have KILLED people...Marijuana HAS NOT!!

I even remember a potato chip sold once that had side effects warning that gave you the runs...but it still was sold on the market!!!!

Marijuana HAS NEVER KILLED ANYONE!!! The only side effect is the munchies for the most part.

Yet Corporate pharmaceutical companies and those on the far right of the real people will continue to lie and fight to keep their monopoly and profit right where it is...their bank account.

IF a dispensary distributes medical marijuana...They should only grow their own supply or hire people to grow for them and only them. Adults over the age of 21 should have open & free access just like alcohol and tobacco.

Marijuana is safer then any of those sold at liquor stores around the country.

S0ome states even have drive through liquor stores (New Mexico) where you can buy a tall boy on your drive home and never get out of your car??

And you still think Marijuana is unsafe???

[Mark Godfrey]

It's time to re-legalize privacy and get the Government out of our private lives.

Government, please get out of my oncologists office, we have adult things to discuss. We don't need your bizarre "protect the kids" tantrums.

[Michael J. Love]

The prohibition against cannabis (or marijuana) is absurd because:

According to the federal government, over 20 million metric tons of cannabis are produced annually in the USA, which makes it our leading cash crop. Additionally another 5 million metric tons is imported annually from Canada (making it Canada's leading cash crop as well), and over 5 million metric tons is imported annually from Mexico.

Many, many authorities have noted that the prohibition against cannabis has attracted criminal elements into the supply chain because they can reap huge profits while it's illegal. Accordingly, take away the illegality you take away the profit for criminal enterprises like the drug cartels across our border. Take away the cash from the drug cartels and then we can be effective in combating the influence of these criminals in our society and for our neighbors.

Thus, the use a cannabis our nation would appear to largely unaffected by the prohibition and despite 874,000 marijuana arrests last year. The prosecution for use of cannabis is the single greatest harm that can come to an typical person from it's use.

Cannabis is well documented and accepted by medical authorities for use to abate the effects of glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. In fact, even the federal government, since 1977, has dispensed cannabis for medical use.

No one, nary a single soul has ever died from an overdose of cannabis. In fact, when compared fairly to alcohol, a fair mind has to wonder why cannabis is illegal and alcohol is legal.

[sllag]

Why not worry about the liquor stores near schools/parks/libraries--"dispensaries" of a much more addictive and potentially harmful substance?

[jk]

legalize it...don't criticize it....

[Silicon Valley Chuck]

I said when the medical marijuana proposition was on the ballot that it was going to be a back door to legalizing weed, and it sure looks like I was right. Hordes of doctors are making easy money selling "get out of jail free" prescriptions to anyone who can think up a health problem for which cannabis is their preferred cure. The hypocrisy is galling. We should drop the pretense and make it legal for real.

But just as I'm opposed to quacks selling bogus prescriptions, I'm also opposed to anyone selling drugs for profit. Look what the profit motive has done for alcohol and tobacco use, two of America's biggest lifestyle health risks. My own experience is that marijuana is at least as addictive as booze and cigarettes, and more insidious because its harm happens more gradually. People who think the "herb" is harmless are only fooling themselves. Let's legalize possession and cultivation for personal use - since anyone can grow marijuana; it is a weed after all - but keep sales illegal.

[Steve]

Do we really even need dispensaries? Isn't it cheaper and better for most patients to grow their own? No paying for a doctor's referral. No paying a dispensary so they can cover their rent/security/salaries/etc. No supporting drug cartels. Even the feds aren't going to spent time or resources busting small individual growers/users.

The dispensaries seem no better than the pharmaceutical companies. They want you to think they're the ONLY option. Even if they become fully legal and are taxed, the taxes will be passed on to patients. More expensive meds.

All this talk about big GOVERNMENT. I'm more afraid of big CORPORATE. These dispensaries want to be the corporations of tomorrow. That's why they moved into every nook & crany of the city, like Starbucks. They tried to get around zoning laws (didn't Walmart try doing that?)

The patients don't need them and most citizens don't want them. Dispensaries are just a very bad idea.

[citizen]

Make it legal and tax it.

[frances gallman]

Isn't it strange that the federal government is suppose to be representing the people, but it is in fact representing itself. They are trying to inforce a law that the people do not want inforced. They voted & the overwhelming victory was to much for the feds. They have ignored the peoples vote to instill their will upon the people. They are inforcing a lie that was hatched in 1937 by one man trying to control the Mexicans. A man who knew nothing about the plant, swore it was making them crazy & set out to poison everyone else's mind who would listen to him. This is a new century & the poison is wearing off. The people can see thru that farce & they want what God gave them on the 3rd day of creation, that he saw was good. Turn it loose.

[Jeff]

I would advocate for complete and utter legalization of all cannabis products and industrial hemp. Regulate the distribution to adults only, let cities decide on them just like they do for strip clubs, liquor stores, and McDonalds, and let the free market take care of seedy or bad quality dispensaries. I know that people don't are too blind to see that this would be best for society so I think what is reasonable to expect from LA right now is regulation of medical marijuana.

We'll allow medical patients to keep buying from dispensaries, just like you and I do from a pharmacy. Patients should retain their rights to anonymity and medical dispensaries should be subject to inspection like any other business before opening and periodically. Allowing police access to patient records without a subpoena would be absolutely unethical and would only leave the door open to abuse, not to mention discourage patrons. This way, medical patients with any ailment defined in the law (and yes, chronic backaches legitimately benefiting from prescription pain meds, should be allowed to benefit from far less harmful cannabis) will keep their safe access, free from abuse by law enforcement. Children will keep getting it from their friends at school (who don't check ID), and everyone else will have to resort to either looking on the streets or exaggerating the medical system. We'll continue to spend millions of dollars on throwing people in jail, destroying illegal grows in our national forests (yet supporting the demand for cartel cannabis because we can't buy from legal and safe growers), and leave our budget in deeper in the red.

Hopefully give or take another decade or so, citizens will be given the right to do as they please, weed will be kept further away from the hands of children (via regulation), tax money will go towards paying refunds in CASH, and we'll all be happier either from the budgetary windfall or the reefer. And the people left in the unhappy camp will be forced to deal with the responsibility of raising their kids properly instead of trying to control the rights and opinions of you, me, medical patients, and everyone in between).

[Pondering]

Doctors write recommendation letters, not prescriptions becuase they can not legally do that under federal law. If one of these clinics gets raided with a search warrant, they are not legally a medical facility so your purchase records are public records, not medical records, they can be released to the public. Wouldn't that be fun to see which politicians and celebrities are buying pot....

Your current president, california governor, your prior president, tons of people, whose lifes were not ruined or stunted have used it.
57% of Californians support full legalization. In 2010 you will see it fully legalized in California via ballot measure.

[Patrick]

Wake up and smell the sativa instead of the coffee, because coffee kills people while marijuana does not, along with cigarettes and alcohol the three have a pile of bodies that we could stack to the moon. They also have profits from their sales of theses substances, so why not lock them up instead since the operation of law is to protect and serve society from things that are actually dangerous?

This editorial wreaks of political lobbyists from all three of the widely available substances listed before and two others that I can think of who have much to lose, the police and the lawyers, who have made trillions of dollars of the fear propagated by rags like the LA Times. Just look at the past to see our present. William Randolph Hearst would be proud of you lemmings over there at the LA times for this type of fear mongering.

We are in 2009, not 1937, and we should hold the media accountable for disseminating information that turns our own citizenry against each other by encouraging them to call the police with the use of this type of disinformation. This is a new version of reefer madness, only they are labeling collective owners the evil instead of the black man or Mexican. Ohh wait, they are using the Mexicans for fear in this propaganda scheme the lobbyists in Washington have cooked up against cannabis, but we've tasted their crap and it won't work this time.

[john godoy]

WEED IS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!IT STIMULATES THE MIND!!!!!!!

[Johnsy]

Why any of this is still a question is amazing (and amusing) to me. Marijuana should be legalized and taxed, which would free up millions and millions of dollars now being wasted on persecution of users who would pose no threat to society if distribution of the herb were properly regulated. Come on folks, let's get real here.

[RevRayGreen]

marijuana can replace 17-52% of OTC or prescription meds without the side-effects or damage from long term use.

These reporters and cops getting recommendations just to out a business are breaking the law. Obtaining recommendations uder false pretense.

[RevRayGreen]

"It's My opinion that Mr. Lopez violated the law see SB420 for penalties regarding obtain a fraudulent Medical Marijuana Recommendation."

now arrest him.

[Tom]

completely agree, legalize it. Cannot stop it's usage and less harmful than alcolhol. Legalize it, tax it, regulate it....same as alcohol.

[Lee Rivas]

I have no problem with legalizing it, taxing it and making it available to all. Just don't make it seem as if it is the miracle drug for what-ails-you.

Being a child of the 60's, weed was an almost innocuous and cheap way back then (remember the nickle bags?) to party safely.

But for people with heart arrhythmias and/or congestive heart failure and/or high blood pressure it could then and it can now prove deadly.

Smoking it can affect the lungs, so if you have emphysema, asthma or other lung function problems; a word to the wise.

People, it is a drug and as such should be available with the appropriate admonishments.

[John]

Don't fool yourself into believing that taxes on marijuana will solve any of the governmental budget issues. We've heard those same arguments before. I thought the lottery was supposed to fix everything.

Should marijuana be legal? Probably but don't pretend that it is completely harmless. Potheads don't produce. Anyone who is a daily pot smoker can be doing so much more for themselves and society. They just don't and when it is completely legal we will see an entire new breed of people in our society that will be a burden on the hard working.

I know pot smokers. I sold it for 15 years and made a fortune at the expense of the weak people. I am a predator and capitalized on it and the same thing is happening now, just on the legal level.

good luck California