Alabamians Warned Against Pre-registration For Medical Marijuana

Despite some businesses claiming so, you can’t pre-register for a medical marijuana card in Alabama. The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners is warning residents about businesses that are claiming they can help individuals receive or get pre-registered for a state-issued medical cannabis card by having a physician evaluate them. Hunter said he believes that the motive these businesses have for advertising the ability to pre-register for a medical marijuana card is money. The money is being paid by the consumer to the business, and they are paying the business for a service the business simply can’t offer,” Hunter said. The state medical cannabis law passed in May still requires several steps before medicinal use is legal in Alabama. Executive Director William Perkins said physicians have not even been authorized to evaluate patients yet. There is really no service these companies can offer Alabamians at this time. No physician has yet been authorized to evaluate patients for medical cannabis in Alabama, and no one in Alabama can be pre-registered for a medical cannabis card,” said William Perkins, the Executive Director of the Board of Medical Examiners. When asked if pre-registration for medical marijuana was close to even becoming a reality in Alabama, Hunter said “We are not close. The Board of Medical Examiners has been in contact with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office about these businesses.

Multiple Sclerosis is an inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system. The body essentially "tags" its own tissue and begins to destroy it. There are many who advocate the use of medical marijuana as opposed to traditional treatments in order to treat this debilitating disease. Immediately after smoking or ingesting marijuana, users describe feeling relaxed and mellow. Marijuana contains four hundred chemicals, the same found in cigarettes, sixty of which are cannabinoids. A cannabinoid is the major active ingredient, and THC is the chemical most often associated with marijuana's affect on the human brain. THC stands for delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinol, and is the plant's main psychoactive chemical. The concentration of THC and other cannabinoids varies and depends on genetics and processing after the marijuana is harvested. As a multiple sclerosis patient, it begs the question; Why would you want to use a substance that affects muscle coordination, short term memory, raises levels of anxiety and increases heart rate when the disease already does that? THC mimics, blocks, and interferes with normal brain function. There are three cannabinoid receptors in the brain; the basal ganglia, the hippocampus and the cerebellum. The basal ganglia is responsible for unconscious muscle movement, the cerebellum controls coordination, and the hippocampus is responsible for recollection of events and short term memory. When marijuana is ingested or eaten, the stomach breaks it down, and the blood absorbs it carrying it to the liver, and the rest of the body. Although THC levels are lower, the effects last longer. Marijuana has been around for thousands of years and is believed to be a native plant of India where it originated in a region in the North Himalayan Mountains.

There are three ways marijuana can be used as medicine: by eating it, by breathing it in, or by rubbing it on the skin. Edible cannabis can take many forms. It may be baked into a treat like a cookie or brownie, infused in a drink like soda, or prepared as a pill like the drugs described in the previous slide. When ingested, the effects of medical marijuana are delayed. Typically the effects take about 30 to 60 minutes to initiate. These effects typically peak after two to three hours. Because the effects take much longer to begin and peak much later when medical marijuana is consumed, a patient cannot control the dosage as easily. For this reason, patients often consume more than they had intended. The effects also last much longer when medical marijuana is ingested, sometimes lasting as long as 10 hours. Because it can be mixed into butter or oil, THC edibles can take many forms, including cookies, cupcakes, hard candy, chocolate, jerky, salads, and burgers. Since these foods often resemble food without cannabinoids, medical users should be careful to keep them away from children, pets, and unsuspecting others.

Perhaps the most common method of taking cannabis is to smoke it, either in a rolled paper cigarette (sometimes called a “joint,”), in a pipe, or through a water-filtering bong. Smoking cannabis presents many of the same dangers as smoking cigarettes. Regular marijuana smokers may experience more frequent upper respiratory infections, excess mucus, and a daily cough. Marijuana smoke contains some of the same cancer-causing chemicals as tobacco smoke, though several studies have failed to demonstrate a higher risk of lung cancer in marijuana smokers. Although marijuana smoke is often held much longer in the lungs than tobacco smoke (often for 10-15 seconds), this practice is not useful and could be harmful. One study found no difference between a study group that held marijuana smoke for 20 seconds, another that held smoke for 10 seconds, and a third group that did not hold the smoke in their lungs at all. Another, more recent, form of breathing cannabis is through vaporizers. Vaporizing (“vaping”) marijuana has been shown in some studies to reduce potentially harmful tars and cause fewer respiratory symptoms than typical cannabis smoking. However another study showed that vaporizing marijuana created more harmful levels of toxic ammonia, which can bring on asthma and irritate lungs. Probably the least common method of using medical marijuana is as a topical patch, salve, or ointment. Topical cannabis has certain advantages over other methods of use. It is released via the skin directly into the bloodstream, meaning the stomach does not break it down, making it more efficient. Using cannabis topically also eliminates the harm caused by inhalation.