Medical marijuana is legal in 14 states, which include: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Specifically, in the state of California, in 1996, the people voted on and passed Proposition 215; jump-starting the medical marijuana industry.
Proposition 215, also referred to as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, allows Californians access to marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes without the threat of punishment or the denial of any right or privilege. The text of Proposition 215 states that its purpose is to ‘Ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is appropriate’.
Marijuana must be recommended by a physician that believes that the herbs effects will benefit the health and condition of the patient it is being recommended to. The proposition describes a few conditions specifically in which marijuana would be appropriate such as cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, and migraine. Luckily, for the rest of us that have found marijuana’s effects beneficial, but do not have any of the above conditions, Proposition 215 also protects ‘any other illness for which marijuana provides relief’. I think that it was this sentence in particular that was deemed the “loophole” to access medical marijuana in our most recent “boom”.
The text goes on to provide protection for patients and their primary caregivers; so that they are not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction for the possession or use of marijuana as medicine. The text is also clear in announcing that Proposition 215 ‘will not be construed to supersede legislation prohibiting persons from engaging in conduct that endangers others, nor to condone the conversion of marijuana for nonmedical purposes’. It does, however, encourage the federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe distribution of marijuana to patients.
Technically, I believe, physicians are not exempt from federal prosecution for recommending marijuana to a patient. However, due to the passage of Proposition 215, under California law, no physician in this state shall be punished or denied any right or privilege for having recommended marijuana to patient if it serves a medicinal purpose to the patient. Recommendations from a physician to a patient are valid whether it be a written or oral recommendation.
California law relating to the possession of marijuana and also relating to the cultivation of marijuana does not apply to a medical marijuana patient or to a patient’s primary caregiver; both are free to possess and/or cultivate marijuana for personal medical purposes of the patient.
Proposition 215 was later further clarified and more specifically regulated by Senate Bill 420. If nothing else this information will open the door and help you to understand why and how marijuana is legal to use for medicinal purposes in California as well as many other states in this country.
[...] About ← Proposition 215: the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 [...]