With the Trump Administration’s embrace of medical marijuana, our federal government has actually made a very important step forward in its acceptance of cannabis as medicine and states’ rights to implement their own medical programs. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam isn’t as hip to recreational marijuana, making medical marijuana more important than ever. And if you are in a state that has a medical marijuana card system, it is extremely beneficial to our movement that we have as many protected patients as possible.

Yes, I own two medical marijuana clinics, Ashland Alternative Health and Northwest Alternative Health,  that help qualified patients register with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, so you wouldn’t be the first to accuse me of looking out for my own business interest, even though I supported the Measure 91 legalization law that theoretically could have put my medical clinics out of business. As Executive Director of the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC) and Oregon Marijuana Business Conference (OMBC), I also get accused of ignoring medical marijuana.  The truth of the matter is that, as a disciple of Jack Herer, I believe that everyone should have access to cannabis without governmental interference. But experience has proven to me that we have to be smart in choosing our battles.

Medical marijuana laws also bring many other benefits to patients. An Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) card, for instance, allows patients to cultivate more plants, possess more marijuana, purchase higher potency medical products and shop tax free at Oregon’s dispensaries.

With chronic pain impacting nearly half of all adults, many people could use medical cannabis instead of addictive opiates, or at least cut down on the number of opiates that they do use. In addition to severe pain, patients can qualify for the OMMP due to glaucoma, muscle spasms, seizures/epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, cachexia, severe nausea, cancer, and PTSD. If you are in Oregon and think that medical marijuana may help you, please give our staff at Ashland Alternative Health or Northwest Alternative Health a call. You can help yourself and the entire cannabis community.

Ashland Alternative Health can be reached at (541) 488-2202, while Northwest Alternative Health (in Eugene) can be reached at (888) 920-6076.