Marijuana has been legal for medical use in Michigan for several years. There is a required process to legally obtain the controlled substance. It starts with an appointment with a doctor who specializes in the benefits of the drug. This consultation requires medical records that prove that there is a need for the medicinal marijuana. Not everyone who seeks the drug will get it. Because it is currently a federally regulated product, the doctor must be sure that the recipient is in need of marijuana for medicinal, not recreational use.
My wife, Lori, has a 4 inch stack of medical records that she brought to the Medical Marijuana Clinic in Jackson, MI, for her appointment. She was at her wit’s end to find a solution to her medical problems that didn’t require the use of even more addictive prescription drugs. Taking over 100 Vicodin a month is not a good way to live your life. The clinic’s waiting room had patient demographics she had not expected. In her mid 50s, she was the youngest person in the room. The other patients had obvious problems with pain. Some limped, hunched over, used walkers, or had artificial limbs. Lori’s problems are less obvious: tingling pain, migraine headaches, lack of energy, and insomnia were documented and reaffirmed. After a meeting that lasted over an hour, her medical marijuana card was issued.
A trip to the medical marijuana store set her up with intelligent workers who recommended the strains she would try. She didn’t care for the stench created from smoking the weed, so she was directed to edibles. Her choice of edibles is in the form of butter and oil that can be used to make pot brownies. A quarter of a brownie has been sufficient to curb her pain or cure her insomnia. An eye dropper with a different strain gives her energy after just a few drops under her tongue.
Many people are fearful of the drug because of the rhetoric espoused in media by figureheads uneducated in the benefits of marijuana, just its recreational use. Advocacy of medical marijuana is a subject that we are happy to share over breakfast at Munro House. Real life needs with responsible use are topics we often discuss. Popping pharmaceutical drugs for long term relief and accepting the addictive properties, side effects, and chemical dependencies are choices many people make as a perceived “only choice”. Medical marijuana has been accepted by many physicians and many states as a successfully proven alternative treatment to many ailments. Medical marijuana has been accepted by our household as a proper treatment for ailments that traditional medicines address, but without the side effects and addictions.
Mike Venturini
“Life is good in Jonesville”