Understanding the Hawaii Medical Marijuana Program

The Hawaii Medical Marijuana program is one of the most lenient and accepted programs in the country. Under this law patients and caregivers are protected from any criminal proceedings if he/she is caught with marijuana. The patient has the right to carry, consume and plant his or her own marijuana and also has access to the Dispensary system.
Under the Hawaii Medical Marijuana program it is imperative that a patient obtains a medical recommendation from a doctor. It is advised that patients bring Medical Documentation of the diagnosis or treatment plan in order to assist the registered physician in recommending you cannabis. Once the physician is convinced that Marijuana will be a suitable treatment, the doctor will recommend cannabis as a Medical treatment.
The patient, can then go with this recommendation to the Department of Health and apply for a Medical Marijuana card. Once everything has been cleared the patient will be required to pay a yearly fee which is generally under $100 USD. Once the patient has a medical marijuana license, he or she would be officially enrolled in the Hawaii Medical marijuana program and will be exempt from regular Marijuana Laws.
The patient will have to follow strict regulation in order to remain within the program. The Hawaii Medical Marijuana program is pretty easy to follow, and if you simply follow common sense, you would not be in danger of any trouble. In essence all you have to do is not have more than 2 ounces of useable marijuana and no more than 6 plants growing in your house with only three mature at a time. The limit might be higher but the fact of the matter is that Drug Enforcement Agencies don’t really care about sick people; they only care about locking people up. That is why it is better to take an extra precautionary measure in order to be void of all problems so that you don’t face any legal issues or felonies issued against you.
This program created a safe avenue for people in suffering to obtain medicine that changes their lives dramatically. In addition to this, the Medical Marijuana program also allows police officers to focus on real crimes while generating a phenomenal revenue stream that would have gone to criminal organizations. Some people believe that Marijuana is bad for people, but this message is erroneous. Throughout history people of all walks of life have used Marijuana to heal their sicknesses; it has been used for construction, food, textiles, fuel and much more. In fact the benefits of Marijuana overshadow the negatives of it by a huge sum.
It is because of programs like the Hawaii Medical Marijuana program that the perception of medical cannabis is changing. People are seeing that the plant is not so evil after all and that under a regulated system, society works better. People aren’t getting busted for consuming a plant, people aren’t being jailed for seeking comfort and people are being provided top quality marijuana to directly treat their symptoms and diseases.

Deciphering the ever complicated Marijuana Laws

It wasn’t really till 1937 until the first ever Marijuana Laws were created. It started out as a tax on growing hemp, or as prohibitionists coined the term “marijuana”. Before 1937 and for thousands of years Marijuana was completely legal. Anybody young or old had access to the plant because it was seen as an essential part of society as it provided; rope, cloth, food, medicine, construction materials and much more. This was a problem for some of the “underdog” industries of their time and thus they created Marijuana Laws to outlaw their competition and corrupt society through yellow journalism and suggestive propaganda.
People didn’t even know that they were outlawing Hemp; they thought Marijuana was this new drug on the street that was spawned from pure evil. The truth of the matter is that since 1937 Marijuana Laws only became more severe and started focusing on punishing all those who had anything to do with it.
In 1971 Nixon declares a War on Drugs. Not because drugs are bad, that’s not the real reason; the reason was because he was getting a lot of heat from Vietnam. He had thousands of protestors standing outside his lawn not willing to go until he made a decision. So in order to be able to move such a big crowd he declared a war on drugs. Nixon knew that most of the protestors were smoking marijuana and thus with an excuse like the “War on Drugs” he could legally break up a protest under the pretence of “eradicating the evils of this world”.
And since then the War on drugs and Marijuana Laws only became more intense and more unfair. In 1974 California tried to re-legalize but the initiative was shot down.  It wasn’t until 22 years later that California managed to alter the Marijuana Laws within the state. They passed a law that protected people with debilitating diseases from any criminal proceedings if caught with smoking marijuana. Also these patients had a legal right to grow their own marijuana as well.
Since then the Medical Marijuana program has expanded like wild fire and within the time frame of 15 years there are 17 states with a legal marijuana program, and ten more pending. More importantly in 2012 in Washington, Oregon and Colorado the local citizens will be voting on legalizing marijuana once more for recreational use for adults 21 and over. This would mean that for the first time since it was illegalized in 1937, it would be made legal once more.
Yet that legality will only be effective on the State level as under the current Federal Marijuana Laws it is still considered illegal. The battle will still be long and there will still be plenty of resistance from the people running the United States. The same prohibitionists that implemented their shady tactics are the same people still running the country. But as people begin to realize that they have power and that through a collective movement, they can re-legalize their freedom.

Is the Colorado Medical Marijuana Program in danger?

The Colorado Medical Marijuana program is one of the most locally accepted system in the US. Colorado has long been fighting for Marijuana legalization and their current Medical Marijuana program is definitely one that has worked and provided essential medicine to patients in a safe environment.
This year in November however Colorado will be voting whether they will legalize weed for recreational purposes which beckons the question; What will happen to the Colorado Medical Marijuana program when that happens?
The Answer? Nothing, it will still be in place even under a fully legalized model. The reason the Medical Marijuana program will still remain intact is because Medical Marijuana has a different purpose than commercial marijuana. Medical Marijuana is exactly that…Medicine! This means that if a patient is suffering from a disease or disorder, he/she requires a constant flow of the same type of medicine. There cannot be discrepancies in potency, especially if the patient is on an established treatment plan. In essence the best method of using Marijuana as a Medicine is through converting the plant matter into Essential Hemp Oils. These oils are basically high concentrate THC which is the active ingredient in Marijuana.
Also, under full scale legalization, the Medical Marijuana industry actually would benefit. They would have more access to cannabis and would have less restriction in terms of research which means that eventually we can expect to see “designer strains” that will target specific diseases and symptoms while excluding other elements of Marijuana. Thus the Colorado Medical Marijuana program should still be intact even if the state legalizes Marijuana for adults 21 and over.
Patients would still be able to obtain their Medical marijuana; they would still get a Medical Marijuana card. There would actually be no reason to halt the program as this division of cannabis will solely focus on the ill. Recreational Marijuana would just be that, recreational. People will design weed that makes you high and that would be its major focus and it will help people in many ways as they will be able to grow weeds at their own.
Finally Legalizing Marijuana would usher in a new category within cannabis, the industrial aspect. Hemp fibers are some of the strongest in the world and can be used for thousands of different textiles. With hemp you can make food, fuel, construction materials, plastics, cloth, rope, and many more. Hemp could supply all paper needs for humanity and would hinder deforestation severely.
The Colorado Medical Marijuana program will only become more specialized under a legalized society. It would mean that doctors and scientists could actually do some serious testing and would be able to address a wider pool of diseases. The program would only benefit from a legalized system and patients would be able to access medicine of higher quality and precision. Also Medical Marijuana has high standards in terms of cultivation and processing the cannabis in a sterile environment. Thus patients nor doctors nor dispensaries should fear, the Medical Marijuana program is only in the beginning of its long and prosperous life.

How to obtain a Medical marijuana card Oregon?

If a patient in the state of Oregon has a Medical marijuana card Oregon he or she has the right to consume, purchase and grow cannabis for medicinal purposes. This means that if the patient is caught with cannabis on their possession, their Medical marijuana card Oregon would grant them immunity to any criminal proceedings.
A patient can obtain this card only through the recommendation of a registered physician. The physician would do a proper physical examination and would revise the patient’s medical history to determine whether the patient would indeed benefit from the use of cannabis. If the doctor believes that cannabis will in fact be a proper treatment, he or she would write out a recommendation. NOTE – doctors can’t “prescribe” marijuana since it is still illegal on a Federal Level, they can only recommend it.
With this recommendation a patient would be able to apply for their own Medical marijuana card Oregon at the department of health. The department would double check if the patient has any criminal records, and whether the recommendation is real. If everything is in order the patient is required to pay an annual fee and in turn would be given a Medical marijuana card Oregon.
With this card the patient can have up to 24 ounces of useable marijuana. Before it was less than this amount but the latest amendments raised the limit. The patient would not be able to be protected under law if he or she exceeds this limit. 24 ounces is almost a half a kilo, so there should be no reason why a patient would exceed it.
In addition to this a patient has the right to grow his or her own marijuana. To be on the safe side a patient is recommended to grow up to 6 plants at a time with only 3 of them being mature at the same time. If the patient sets up a good grow cycle he/she would be able to harvest every month or so and would never run out of medication.
Currently Oregon is attempting to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes. This would mean that any adult over the age of twenty one would have legal access to marijuana and would be able to purchase pot in designated stores. Some people fear that this would promote drug use, but if you come to think about it…Hollywood promotes drug use and we’re not making them illegal are we? The many reasons prohibition might think of to make the public believe that marijuana is the ultimate sin are nothing more than bigotry and ignorant jargon. There are hardly any scientific findings to back up these claims and with some slack investigation, Marijuana generally proves to be the exact opposite of what is claimed. With technology and the Internet people are beginning to change their perception on the plan, and this year might be the first time in the History of the War on Drugs that a State within the United States actually re-legalized the plant under Federal Prohibition. It reminds me of the times that alcohol was illegal…doesn’t it?

Colorado Marijuana Initiative Picking up Pace

Marijuana has been an essential part of humanity for thousands of years. It wasn’t until 1937 that Marijuana first became illegal, and since then catastrophic social consequences stemmed from seventy years of prohibition. The Colorado Marijuana initiative, composed of many different pro marijuana groups, have managed to first institute a system of Medical Marijuana within Colorado, but now this November have managed to put full scale recreational legalization of cannabis on the map.
If the bill were to pass, Colorado might be the first state to actually legalize Marijuana for recreational purposes to all adults twenty one and older. Colorado Marijuana programs have been a raving success since it began and with this new proposition we can expect a lucrative venture as a result. More importantly this would be a direct attack against organized crime while reducing stress on an already saturated judicial system. This would mean that thousands of people who currently are consuming marijuana illegally, would be safe from all criminal proceedings if caught with the State sanctioned amount of Cannabis.
This wouldn’t mean that anybody can just whip out a joint and smoke it in the streets, you would have to exercise common sense. Also the drug would still be illegal on the Federal level, so maintaining things on the down-low might be the best approach. The Colorado Marijuana legalization effort might be the first sensible policy against criminal enterprises ever in the history of the drug war. This would directly take the money out of the hands of these criminals and put it back into the hands of the people. In addition this would limit the amount of people currently being arrested for marijuana consumption. A NORML statistic shows that cannabis consumers get arrested every 38 seconds. Imagine if the police could spend their time on actually pursuing real crimes such as Rape, Murder and Theft.
The Colorado Marijuana legalization effort might also be the “beginning of the end” of prohibition worldwide. Prohibition in fact is an American Model and was pushed on the entire world with the help of the United States who continually enforced it. Nixon called it his “War on Drugs” and since then we have seen a rise in crime, drug consumption, dead bodies piling up in Latin America, corruption in politics, some of the world’s largest banks assisting in laundering money and the list goes on. There even was a CIA plane that crashed in Southern Mexico with more than 4 tons of cocaine on it. The point being that the entire system was rotten since the first day it was institutionalized.
Hopefully Colorado will manage to take the first step in ending the madness. Hopefully the Federal government can respect the decisions of the States, respect their own right to decide. I fear if the Federal government ignores States’ Rights, it could bring on a very controversial and possible violent period within the future of the United States. It could very well be the reason the Obama Administration is working so hard to maintain Indefinite Detention legal.