The Problem with Medical Marijuana
A few thousand years ago the Greeks invented the Pill. At the time pills were simple balls of paste, but the invention of the pill was a breakthrough because it enabled a measured dosage of medication to be reliably administered. Greek patients no longer had to fumble with scales or guess how much to consume, they knew exactly how much to take because their pharmacist had measured and prepared the dosages for them. Reliable dosing wasn't just a safe way to prevent an excessive or inadequate dose, it was also a way for the patient to track the progression of their illness while they were between doctor's visits: if it took two pills to relieve last month's symptoms and five to relieve this month's a patient could know there was a problem and seek professional help.
Today the FDA inspects and certifies medicines to guarantee its safety, potency, and marketing claims. The BATF inspects and certifies the potency of alcohol sold in clearly labeled bottles. Even the chicken pot pie sitting in my freezer is clearly labeled with nutrition information and servings per pie. But if you visit a medical cannabis dispensary today - a facility supposedly dedicated to delivering effective medication to needy patients - it's as if the last 2000+ years of advancement in pharmacology never happened. Today's medical cannabis is not tested or labeled for THC content and is not sold in metered doses. A cancer patient is left guessing whether a gram of Trainwreck is equivalent to a pinch of Sour Diesel assuming that they own a digital scale and take the time to measure their dosage. They don't know how much more they'll get from different parts of the flower. Selling bags of untested, uncertified cannabis for medical use seems about as sensible as the fictitious example of selling fully automatic weapons for hunting - it might be able to do the job, but if that was your actual intent there are better tools one could choose.
I'm not opposed to recreational marijuana use. If you have no need for therapy and are consuming marijuana for pure recreational enjoyment there is far less reason to require careful measurement, and I see no reason for regulation beyond measures like the FDA's that cover the production safety of other consumable vegetable products. I don't expect medical cannabis dealers to sit on their hands in this political climate waiting for the FDA to step in either: if dispensaries want to test their own products or form testing cooperatives to provide consistent standards the way DanceSafe does with pills that's fine with me as well. But as long as "medical" cannabis isn't being sold in a form that's useful as medication I can't believe that the primary goal of the MCDs I've seen is to provide medication to patients, or that it's being produced with legitimately needy medical patients as the intended primary consumers.
Today the FDA inspects and certifies medicines to guarantee its safety, potency, and marketing claims. The BATF inspects and certifies the potency of alcohol sold in clearly labeled bottles. Even the chicken pot pie sitting in my freezer is clearly labeled with nutrition information and servings per pie. But if you visit a medical cannabis dispensary today - a facility supposedly dedicated to delivering effective medication to needy patients - it's as if the last 2000+ years of advancement in pharmacology never happened. Today's medical cannabis is not tested or labeled for THC content and is not sold in metered doses. A cancer patient is left guessing whether a gram of Trainwreck is equivalent to a pinch of Sour Diesel assuming that they own a digital scale and take the time to measure their dosage. They don't know how much more they'll get from different parts of the flower. Selling bags of untested, uncertified cannabis for medical use seems about as sensible as the fictitious example of selling fully automatic weapons for hunting - it might be able to do the job, but if that was your actual intent there are better tools one could choose.
I'm not opposed to recreational marijuana use. If you have no need for therapy and are consuming marijuana for pure recreational enjoyment there is far less reason to require careful measurement, and I see no reason for regulation beyond measures like the FDA's that cover the production safety of other consumable vegetable products. I don't expect medical cannabis dealers to sit on their hands in this political climate waiting for the FDA to step in either: if dispensaries want to test their own products or form testing cooperatives to provide consistent standards the way DanceSafe does with pills that's fine with me as well. But as long as "medical" cannabis isn't being sold in a form that's useful as medication I can't believe that the primary goal of the MCDs I've seen is to provide medication to patients, or that it's being produced with legitimately needy medical patients as the intended primary consumers.