nj medical marijuana rant

My little rant response to adding new qualifying conditions... A few notes as a njmmp patient myself (ptsd). They need to expand the current program first before adding conditions. To begin registration takes anywhere from 1 month or up to 6 months until you have your physical copy. This is the short and sweet version of applying. Basically, you qualify for medical weed in NJ then you look up one of the 400+ doctors on the nj.njmmp.gov website. Once you find the closest one to you call and make an appointment. This appointment is your first of 4 mandated by the state. Most, consultation for mmp doctor visits generally costs anywhere from 200-325$ depending on the doctor. In this first visit, your doctor will have the nurse come in first and explain the qualifying conditions and general info on the program. Then, the doctor comes in and will ask you questions like how was your past week with your condition, how does it affect your daily life, and basic symptoms that you have. They will then explain how THC works along with CBD and the multiple other compounds beneficial medically in marijuana . He gave me the whole speech on how 80% of non medical weed contains feces, and so on. He then continued to tell me that it was great seeing me and that I am 100% qualified. The Doctor told me I would need 3 more appointments at 100$ each. He then made it a point to let me know on the last visit I have to bring in a note from my primary doctor with my diagnoses. I left the room with satisfaction knowing he's taking me seriously. I continued to go to the front desk to schedule my remaining 3 appointments. This is where is gets over complicated for no reason.You pretty much have to hope the doctor can fit you in 3 more times within a reasonable period of time. If they can't schedule you then, you will be waiting months in between appointments without medicine. Thankfully, they were able to fit me in a week after my first appointment for the 3 of my remaining ones. Fast forward to the next week. I had my second appointment on a Monday. Basically, all I did was come back and report in on how I was doing. Then Tuesday came it was time for my third appointment, which consisted of the same as the second. Next, Wednesday came and the Doctor is off. Finally, Thursday came and it was my last appointment! I went prepared with my doctor note saying I suffer from PTSD with my listed symptoms. I sat in the waiting room for maybe a whole hour before being called in. The Nurse calls me in, hands me a folder full of literature from the breakwater atc and compassionate sciences which are both atcs. I hand her my note and chat a bit about which atc ill be going to. I knew everything and more than her which is understandable as I am an avid user and med patient in 3 other states. She is just learning as are most these NJ doctors. She leaves and then the Doctor came in looked at my Diagnosis and thanked me for a while written note from my primary doctor. Then, he for the first time brought up my pot use currently and started asking about dosage. He told me he wanted to start me out on a half ounce, which is standard, but I explained I already smoke more than that to relive my ptsd. We came to a compromise of one ounce a month which upset me. The reason it upset me was I know what works for me and how much I need. I qualify for this medicine so why limit my intake of something that helps tremendously with quality of life? Anyways, he was trying to be reasonable so I let it be. The way it works is for example month one sept 1- 30 first ounce , oct 1-30 second ounce, nov 1-30 third ounce. So basically you have any time between those dates to buy up to a ounce of weed. The catch being if you do not buy the full 28 grams that month, then it does not carry over. He then led me to the front desk where they gave me my actual prescription. This was a paper with my states mmp reference number, the doctors info, and the days in where my prescriptions for. They told me to go onto the website nj.njmmp.gov and register as a new member with the provided ref code. This was the beginning process of registering with he state via doctors reference. So at this point I was approved to have medical marijuana in NJ, and I just had to prove my identity to the state to get the card. So, I went home did as they said which was easy. All I did was upload my driver license, utility bill, and passport style photo. You would think they would review it it like a 48 hour period, but no. You are now stuck waiting up to 2-4 weeks for them to approve your address and what not. The reason this is so stupid is because your prescription period has already begun. Once they have approved of all the sent info you now have to pay 200$ and wait 2 more weeks for the card to be mailed to you. So at this point you are almost guaranteed to miss at least one month of your first prescription. This is fucking ridiculous to me and needs fixing asap. Now onto the atc (dispensary) Only one atc is allowed to make edibles and process co2 wax. The other 4 operating right now are only allowed to sell dry cannabis. Break water and compassionate sciences are the only two dispensaries selling bud for a considerable fair price of 300 a oz. The others atcs are selling them 500+ a oz. You are not allowed to smell the nug before you buy as they are in sealed jars. Most atcs wont sell under a q, so if you want variety or to try a strain you have to commit to at least 7 grams. This in my mind is pure laziness. You are only limited to the amount the doctor prescribes for a given 3 month period. In my case only a zip per month lol max doses allowed ATM is 2 oz per months. I am relatively new to NJ program, hence not having max dose yet. This causes a huge issue for me considering i smoke breakfast, lunch, and dinner for medicinal use. So let just say I use a gram each time I barley have enough for the month. Even more annoying say I want to buy the one edible sold in the program atm. They come in 10mg lozenges with 30 in a container. This counts as 3.5 grams or 1/8 of your monthly supply lol. Personally, I need at least 150mg to get any benefit. Then, you have the co2 wax. 70$ for like a .5 which counts again as 3.5 grams of your monthly supply lol. To put that in perspective, I smoke about either 4 to 5 grams a day or 1 gram of bho per 24 to relive my symptoms. all in all, we need major reform and expansion of our program before we decide to allow tens of thousands of more patients. I could go on for hours about what's NJ is doing awesome in aspects of medical marijuana and I can talk about the huge drawbacks to our program. Even though it is not a perfect medical program, we are light years from where we started. I cannot complain that i am provided 3 medical ozs of weed every 3 months, and i will continue to fight for looser medical marijuana guidelines.

 

i refuse to relocate my family due to my illness, and will continue to advocate. It truly is a bitch and a half to been on both side of this from working in a medical place in cali to this bull shit.

 

I just want to clarify that i do spend money on non medical weed each month because they supplied amount is not enough for me yet. The ATCs in new jersey are pretty standard to one in Seattle and Cali where i am a card holder. Those two states it costed me around 50$ with no purchase limit really. In NJ its 200$ pluss 4 visit of 100$ then a few of 200 for the card. So 800$ all together, but it is 100% worth it to legally smoke in NJ. I can always buy my weed off the street for much cheaper. I also get slabs locally like 900$. I give the NJ medical like 6/10 right now give it 3 years we will be one of the top NJ programs. Right now though it is a bitch and a half to navigate but considering there is only 10,000 patients im honored to be able to participate at the ground level.

 

i could not say it any better. The reason i said we should wait to add conditions is the program is already over stressed. I can say i have notice since i started the program a huge increase in how it runs. They are indeed going to legalize weed once tummy tuck is gone. They are also continuing to expand the atcs which is a huge step because it creates competition. Every time a new atc opens they get more and more approvals to do concentrates and more indepth stuff. Im pretty sure compassionate science has a cls for extraction just inst approved to use it for bho yet. The second problem i see is we need to lift these restrictive amount it is dumb. Until we can change the amount allowed to be possessed , and allow home cultivation we will continue to be way behind. Another huge step nj made is our law makers took a trip to Colorado so they can mend our mmp to be more like theirs. The nj mmp has alot of hope for the near future. Although, like you said right now the program is so broken considering im buying concentrates from co and cali to this day smh. Its cool to hear from someone else is in nj. I also forgot to mention the north jersey dispensary are garbage which is unacceptable. Break Water or Comp Sciences atm the rest are jokes. If you think ill pay more then 300$ for a ounce of weed which will last me maybe 20 days you clearly do not understand medical marijuana.

 

I actually was attacked by 9 people and almost killed it made national news if you are from nj you most likely heard about the incident. I agree with you i was addicted to xanx for 5 years due to ptsd finally stopped a 2 years ago and got my mmj card, i never looked back.

The black market around nj is abundent. Zips of wax are 1k-800 and bud is like 25-29 of dank. Thats not the issue, i want to be able to legal pay these prices. If i were to try and sell rosin i would make no profit unless using dry sift. Which i agree with you if you can get enough dry sift for cheap the yields are insane. Plus we get all the designer weed comps like cookies, oil refinery co, hash man extracts, clear, any wax comp you can find in cali. The only problem with all that is it is highly illegal to buy, and posses so yeah it sucks. I think with my ounce rec i can have like technically a q of wax on me and be fine. If i told you i understood the nj medical law 100% i would be fibbing. I do know that i try to avoid the cops even with my card which means the black market sucks. My wax plug was playing x box with me and i heard him get raidied over the mic guns in his face and all. Guess what they found 2 zips lmao They thought he had guns and shit they are so stereotypical of nj stoners still. Its a dangerous game out in nj. Yeah you can get qps of wax, but get caught with 1 g? thats a felony.

There actually is a board meeting in about 8 months in Trenton. The board is considering 45 additional conditions. Out of the 45 the will probably add 12 imo. This will cause them to add more atcs. which in turn will cause the new atcs to apply for more options of products they are allowed to produce. This is all cause and effect is very important. Also as much as i hate tummy tuck i gotta thank him for add in ptsd . I am hopeful that trump will leave the legal state alone as he has kept it out of his plan against drugs so far.

 

I hope to be able help to provide the whole medical community of the state of nj with any info i can possibly find. I also want to help advocate which i am considering starting a non profit. I was thinking of basically making few differnt items from coffe mugs to t shirts that have our non profits logo and tag line. Then what i want to do is sell those throughout the country. Next i want to take a 80% of the profits and make a monthly marijuana fund with it. Finally with this fund i want to create a raffle system through the websites where med patients can sign up and participate in. Once we have raised enough money we will start the raffle and chose say the top 20 people and pay for one month of there marijuana supply.

Sweet and short we sell products with the purpose that if you buy it you are donating medicine indirectly to somone who is sick. Also i like to note this system would not be based on what a person can afford. If you are a nj medical patient rich or poor it is free to join. These are all just ideas but i would love to bring them to life.

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so true i used to work at a dispensary in goleta Santa Barbara in college. That was one of the most wild experiences of my entire life.