How to Get Your Medical Marijuana Card in California: 6 Easy Steps

There are six steps to getting your medical marijuana card in California. If you get your card, law enforcement will be able to call a 1-800 number to verify that you are legal. Being "legal" means that you are not subject to arrest for possession, transportation, delivery, or cultivation of medical marijuana in an amount established pursuant to California statute. After you are legal, you may posses 8 ounces of dried marijuana. In addition, you may simulaneously grow and possess 6 mature plants. Your card is good for a year and then you must renew it.

1. Find a doctor close to you that is willing to prescribe marijuana. You should ask your regular physician first to save money. If not, plan on pre-paying about $180 for a visit to a "pot-doc." A pot-doc is a physician who is openly empathetic to patients who want to be prescribed marijuana for their medical symptoms or pain. The doctor will determine whether you are eligible. Eligibility depends on whether a) you have a serious medical condition, and b) the use of marijuana is appropriate. (Note: Most people qualify under #6 or #12 below).

A serious medical condition is:
(1) Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
(2) Anorexia.
(3) Arthritis.
(4) Cachexia.
(5) Cancer.
(6) Chronic pain.
(7) Glaucoma.
(8) Migraine.
(9) Persistent muscle spasms, including, but not limited to,
spasms associated with multiple sclerosis.
(10) Seizures, including, but not limited to, seizures associated
with epilepsy.
(11) Severe nausea.
(12) Any other chronic or persistent medical symptom that either:

(A) Substantially limits the ability of the person to conduct one
or more major life activities as defined in the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-336).
(B) If not alleviated, may cause serious harm to the patient's
safety or physical or mental health.

2. Collect medical records as written documentation of your condition and give them to your doctor before the appointment. Attend your appointment and get a doctor's report.

3. Select a "primary caregiver." To find a caregiver (or dispensary), you can start by visiting NORML or THCF Foundation's websites. Some caregivers have stores (dispensaries) and some are delivery services. There may be long-term care facilities in your area. If you live near Fresno, this blog maintains a list of local doctors and caregivers.


4. Submit an application to your County Health Department. You must pay a fee with your application and provide all of the following: 1) name and proof of county residency, 2) your doctor's report saying you have a "serious" condition, 3) name and contact info of doctor, 4) name of primary caregiver, and 5) copy of photo id of you and your caregiver.

5. Receive your medical marijuana card.

6. Go shopping for your first sack or start growing!

Vaporizing Marijuana is a More Potent way to Absorb the THC than Smoking

There are many different ways that medical marijuana can be injested - the most popular are smoking, eating, tincturing, and vaporizing. Out of all the methods, vaporization is the best way to unlock the potent, medicinal properties of cannabis.

The fact that marijuana is smoked has been an obstacle to its being approved as a medicine. Cannabis vaporization elimates the lung problems associated with smoking. The process involves heating the cured plant to a temperature where vapors are produced but combustion does not occur.

Vaporization results in a more effective delivery and potent intake of cannabanoids. A 2004 study comparing vaprization with smoking found that the combustion of cannabis resulted in the production of a hundred different chemicals that were not present when vaporizing. (Dale Gieringer, Efficient Delivery of THC with Effective Suppression of Pyrolytic Compounds, Journal of Cannabis Therapeudics, Vol.4(1) 2004.)


Many different types of vaporizers are currently popular. The best known and possibly most expensive is the $539 Volcano Vaporizer made by Storz & Bickel, a company based in Germany. The Volcano is powered by a ceramic heating unit and heat vent. Hot air blown through the vent heats cannabis which has been inserted into a chamber. The Volcano can recover about 50-80% of the THC present in a sample of marijuana.


For more information about vaporizer studies: http://www.maps.org/mmj/vaporizer.html

Lee Brand Attacks Fresno Medical Marijuana Patients

In December 2008, a medical marijuana facility in the Tower District was closed by city officials after just 2 days in operation. When the owner, a disabled former paralegal, asked the Fresno City Council to allow the dispensary, one of the council members became abusive. Lee Brand, new to the council this year, was quoted by the Fresno Bee as saying, "If it's that important, maybe they should move to San Francisco?" 

Brand suggests we tell 80 year-old Grandmother to treat her painful cancer by making a 6 hour drive to San Francisco. Maybe not the best alternative to someone with a painful disease? Interestingly Brand is a certified property manager and realtor who has a direct financial interest in the stability of Fresno real estate and the Tower District.

"We have so many problems in the city," Brand said. "I'd put medical marijuana at the bottom of the list. There are clearly more pressing matters."

Are there more urgent issues? The most asked question to Obama at the town hall meeting was whether marijuana would be legalized.

In this blog, I will be following the Fresno City Council's efforts to unjustly trample the rights of disabled Fresnans who have been prescribed medical marijuana.

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