BYCU, Kind of

A client stopped by my office last week. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that he has a medical marijuana card (Michigan passed a medical marijuana law in 2008). He's in his sixties. He said he doesn't smoke the stuff, but it allows him to get THC cream for his hip, which bothers him. He said the cream really takes away the pain. I didn't inquire into the nature of his injury. I was more intrigued about the process of getting a medical marijuana card, so I asked him to walk me through the process.

It's surprisingly easy.

According to my client, he went to a licensed store in Lansing. He signed in and waited for his name to be called. He then visited with a physician (presumably, employed by the store) about his hip problem, and she prescribed marijuana. He then took the prescription into the store and they issued him a marijuana card and asked him what he wanted to buy.

He said they had marijuana, hash, marijuana cookies, cream, and a few other things. The prices are outrageous: $30 a gram, about three joints (for the vernacularly-inclined). If it's decent marijuana, a person could get high about eight times off it, which isn't bad, when compared to the money it costs to get the parallel buzz from beer, but it's still about five times higher than street prices.

My client also told me that he received assurance that his possession of a medical marijuana card is legally confidential, so it's not like local law enforcement is aware of it and he won't face social ostracism because of it.

In any event, I find the whole thing fascinating. I have little doubt that the entire process is largely a ruse for people to get high. It's obvious that the store's physician has a conflict of interest: s/he wants the patient to get pot, since I'm assuming the store pay's his/her salary. And the fact that the entire process takes less than an hour? Heck, you could spend that much time trying to arrange a drop space with your dealer.

But no matter, I simply don't care. If people want to get high, it doesn't bother me. Ten years ago, I opposed efforts to legalize marijuana. I wasn't rabid about it, but I opposed them. Today, I shrug. I don't have a strong feeling either way.

And if my client's hip feels better, I'm happy for him.