Medical Marijuana Overruns Our State

What did I run into  that almost made me crash my car  in my little suburban town, you might wonder  You know those annoying folks who position themselves  on street corners frantically gesturing  for you to pull in  to McDonalds or Arby's?  maybe you have seen the person dressed up like a chicken waving you into KFC, or maybe  someone with a sign for Verizon or new model homes. Well, here's a new one for you. I saw a guy  dressed in a marijuana leaf costume pointing me  toward "Cannamart". This cute little moniker borrowing from the King Kong of all megastores, WalMart, is of course medicinal marijuana "dispensary".

In our little town of sixty thouand,  there are currently nine medicinal marijuana dispensary outlets. I can tell you that  our little town  is certainly on the conservative side, yet for some reason we need  half a dozen  marijuana stores. God forbid one would need to drive  one town over where a population of 50,000 is serviced by 60 dispensaries. That was not a typo my friends, indeed  there are  sixty
In Los Angeles, California in mid-2010  there were 186 "pot shops" operating within the  city limits. It is estimated that due to market over-saturation, more than fifty cannabis shops  had closed in the past 90 days. Those numbers sure didn't scare  those Southern California business owners who had more than 400 approved applications for dispensaries within the city limits that were planning to open  at the same time the fifty  were going out of business.

For sure  I am confident almost all  of these wanna be  pot shop owners have an MBA and drew up a solid marketing plan as part of a detailed business plan. A late-night comedian joked that there were more pot shops within the Los Angeles city limits than public schools, and even more incredibly Starbucks. Who knew how critical this medicine was and how many possible ailments it could remedy?
Why didn't the FDA approve its use years ago? I mean, you can get a recommendation for its medicinal use for just about any ailment. Loss of appetite-check, sleep problems-check, stress-check, back pain-check.  It would seem the only ailment left out is the only true one - the psychological and physical problem that you just  ran out of  marijuana!

Don't misunderstand me. I am open to the idea  there are medicinal qualities for marijuana. It is scientifically proven to help with glaucoma and pain management. And there is no reason for  arguing the actuality that for most men and women, marijuana does stimulate your appetite.

I have yet to see any proven study on what percent of buyers have a legitimate reason for using marijuana. The above-mentioned real-life conditions where THC would ease the suffering, usually applies to  an older group of clientele. How many people in their 20s  have  glaucoma? Yet according to one study, in the state of Nevada, the mean  age of a patient with a recommendation for medicinal marijuana was 40. There are a lot more minors with recommendation - 17, than octogenarians - only seven.

Getting a prescription  should be  much harder  which will be a subject for another article.  There are stores,  pot shops, where you can walk in one door, see a doctor who has no file of your medical history, complain about chronic pain or loss of appetite, and bam,  you have a recommendation.

According to a local news channel, the state was receiving more than 1,000 applications to open a marijuana dispensary  every day. According to the report,  as of August 26, 2010 Nevada had a backlog of between 60,000 and 70,000 applications. You thought your job was hard  imagine looking at your inbox with 70,000 applications still to go through. Think you can work hard and you can bust them out by Friday. Holy smoke, another thousand  every day!

Marijuana is attempting to join alcohol and tobacco among "accepted" drugs. States legalized marijuana for medical purposes through votes of the general public. The problem - no regulations were in place when those laws were voted in. Should marijuana be legalized for recreational purposes? Is it truly medicinal? Those are topics for future discussion.

This is absolutely  a very serious topic.   It is important to observe that like alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is a drug. If you or another person you know may be addicted to marijuana or other drugs, it is vital to seek help. There are many alcohol and drug awareness courses one can attend, as well as a variety of support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). For  people  who would prefer to take a course in the privacy of their own home there are also online alcohol classes and alcohol and drug courses.