Pubdate: Thu, 05 Feb 2015 Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK) Column: Highly Informed Copyright: 2015 Alaska Dispatch Publishing Contact: http://www.adn.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18 Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14 Author: Scott Woodham WHAT ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA AFTER POT BECOMES LEGAL IN ALASKA? First a bit of Highly Informed housekeeping. Thank you to everyone who sent in a question. We had planned on starting off with a few of our own questions, but the response was so great right from the start that we've put them on the shelf and started on yours. Thanks for sending them in, and please keep them coming. Today's installment focuses on three medical marijuana questions. Theresa's question is up first. I am a medical marijuana patient. My card is going to expire soon. Do I need to renew it? Naturally, you're free to decide on your own in consultation with your doctor. There isn't a requirement to renew, and the initiative to legalize recreational cannabis did not change anything about Alaska's medical marijuana laws. For a few reasons, however, you should consider renewing on the side of caution, especially if your health condition means you need continuous access to medicine, or you have designated a caregiver growing for you. If your card expires, so does your designated caregiver's permission to grow for you. The initiative to legalize, tax and regulate did not distinguish between medical and "recreational" cannabis. Alaska's medical system remains unchanged by Ballot Measure 2. If you're obtaining medicine now, losing your card might disrupt that access or cause you to seek black-market sources. Because there are no dispensaries in Alaska, there is still no way for patients to legally fill their prescriptions with a purchase. It must be grown by the patient or a caregiver, but there is so far no legal avenue to obtain seeds or cuttings to grow. Even though Ballot Measure 2 will soon take effect and legalize limited possession and growth of marijuana, medical patients will still need access to medicine. Any patients considering letting a card expire should take their own needs into account along with the fact that the state does not expect a legal retail market to be ready anytime very soon. Alaska Dispatch News' Suzanna Caldwell reported this week that regulators expect retail stores to be ready to operate by May 26, 2016, but there are some big potential variables in the timeline. If you're sick, that's a lot of time to wait before you can legally purchase medicine without a card. After Feb. 24, individuals will be free to grow six plants at a time, three of them immature, but depending on dosage requirements or home garden limitations, that may not be enough to meet a patient's needs. But all those reasons assume that someone holds a medical card for entirely medical reasons. Which brings us to our next reader question, from Pam. After legalization day, will there be an advantage to having an Alaska medical marijuana card? The answer is yes and no. No, because soon it won't be necessary to get a medical card to have peace of mind for possession or growth on a small scale in cases where marijuana use may not always be strictly medical. But soon, that peace of mind will apply to everyone who's within the limits of the law. For people who have a medical need, though, having a card does come with advantages that people dealing with illness would do well to consider. Among other reasons, a medical card would be necessary for any patients under the age of 21, the legal age for purchase or possession under the initiative. Also, some patients may need to purchase or possess more medicine than state or local laws may allow them to have after the new laws have finished settling down at the state and local levels. Another advantage may come in the future, but there's no way to tell just yet. Some mention has been made in legislative hearings this week about the idea of creating a separate set of controls taxation for any medical market that may be established here, but nothing like that has been made concrete yet. Precedent for a two-tiered system exists in Colorado, where differences between medical and recreational include things like the number of doses or strength of some products, like infused edibles, and lower taxes on medical cannabis. Washington's medical market is also separate from its non-prescription retail market, and that is the subject of strong debate right now. Also worth taking into account if a two-tiered system were created in Alaska, some highly potent products may end up being restricted in the recreational market past the point of utility or convenience for medical patients whose needs may surpass most other cannabis users. But that's all up in the air right now. Because the initiative did not distinguish medical marijuana, nothing will change unless regulators or lawmakers address the situation. There is still no way in Alaska for patients to legally purchase medical marijuana or compensate a caregiver to grow it for them. There is also still no legal avenue to obtain seeds or cuttings to grow for medical purposes. To me, it seems a cruel twist that recreational users are poised to become the first legal purchasers of marijuana in Alaska, but medical patients still await relief from a medical system that makes access to medicine very difficult. Our next question comes from Paul. Does medical marijuana lose its medicinal value if smoke containing carcinogens and other chemicals is the delivery system? The short answer is no. People still have medical uses for cannabis, and some patients do take their medicine via smoke. There's more to it, though. Cannabis smoke does contain chemicals, and some of them are known to be harmful, but science is still trying to figure out the long-term risks of varying levels of use. For many medical patients, the benefits generally outweigh the possible risks. People use cannabis, for instance, to endure the misery of chemotherapy to treat life-threatening cancer. Others use it to control chronic pain or neurological symptoms. And those are just a few of the reasons people might seek a prescription. Cases like that seem to me to clearly outweigh the long-term risks, but everyone's situation is different. The question of dangers associated with smoking is somewhat moot for many many medical patients, however. Patients who require frequent or large doses usually don't take their medicine by smoking it because, among other reasons, it would first be too irritating to their lungs. For that reason, many patients medicate using vaporization, marijuana concentrates or infused edible products, to say nothing of tinctures, creams and so on. Alternatives to smoking aren't without potential risks themselves, but they do bypass some of the main problems associated with smoking. Have a question about marijuana news or culture in Alaska? Send it to with "Highly Informed" in the subject line. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom