When my best friend’s wife had her cancer return in full force plus some, we all knew it meant some drastic life changes. They chose to move to Maryland because of the proximity to John Hopkins University hospital and their progressive cancer treatment. Although bad, it seemed for the moment the cancer was dormant.
What it was doing is building up to attack more things in worse ways and for the first time in a decade of battle, cancer got the upper hand. It was painful and debilitating by filling up the lungs with fluid that had to be drained daily and caused swelling behind the eyes to the point they wouldn’t shut. And lots of other “cancer pain”.
This called for the big guns: chemotherapy and radiation to knock down some of these issues. Then a regiment for pain control that did not focus on opiates because of adverse reactions to them. This brought up the subject of medical cannabis.
Most states have some kind of medical marijuana program (37 total). Maryland has a fledgling system for cannabis but is really trying to be progressive in their approach. My friend’s wife was the registered patient, and he was the caregiver and they planned on purchasing all cannabis products from dispensaries. They even met with a medical cannabis nurse to help them navigate the process as well as consulting with me all along.
I spent hours pouring over online menus from every cannabis dispensary/ wellness center/ or store on Leafly and Weedmaps. In Maryland, big places like Baltimore to all the little nooks and crannies of small towns where there was flower and dabs but really little else to speak of and not medically attuned at all. What it looked like was a preemptive attempt to stock shelves before recreational legalization begins to collect taxes.
We found a great lack of consistency among basic products from the west coast to the east coast, and this caused a huge frustration. Full Extract Cannabis Oil is at the base of all cannabis protocols for cancer and it was a rare find and then very expensive to the point of being unattainable for most fixed income medical patients. Tinctures were hard to come by and expensive too.
Specialty products that have several options in mature markets out west do not even exist anywhere on the eastern seaboard. This is in reference to cannabis transdermal patches specifically. Long lasting, and direct into the bloodstream without having to swallow or digest anything these are at the forefront of medical cannabis development.
Overall there was a limited number of items that could be found and it was very disappointing. Perhaps we are spoiled in the PNW with the availability and diversity in well thought out and innovative products. This is where cannabis medicine exists.
Or perhaps because there’s no federal law so there’s no need for consistency across the 37 legal states. The domino effect is that patients suffer while states stack up the tax money. This is not how it is supposed to work. It’s shameful how medical is thrown under the tax bus.
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