Good Morning Utah,
Our Medical Cannabis program has launched!
Sort of…it has been a complete train wreck, but nobody is surprised by this. According to Fox 13 News, our first cannabis “pharmacy,” only managed to serve 16 customers on Monday, and then only served a total of one customer on Tuesday.
How hard is it to get this right? The legislature was warned throughout the entire law making process that their re-writes to the medical cannabis law were going to end in headaches, and heartache. Which they have.
It isn’t just legislative headaches!
Prop 2, the medical cannabis proposition that passed in 2018, was a fantastic piece of legislation. The legislature promptly gutted it and wasted a lot of tax payer money and time in the process. I wonder how much the current lawsuit over Prop 2 against Governor Herbert and other involved parties will ultimately cost the state? There was no good reason to block the proposition, unless the current medical cannabis act, as written, was really written to keep the public hooked on opioids. There were constant edits and special deals for growers and distributors; many of which our own legislature is suspected to be involved in. I’m told that investors and legislators do not need to disclose ownership shares of cannabis operations, unless more than 2% is owned by the investor. Hmmm…this conveniently makes it hard to find out who’s involved in cannabis and who truly has a conflict of interest. What? Conflicts of interest in Utah government? Say it ain’t so?
The Moses View:
What we’re dealing with here is an artificial product shortage, unnecessary patient backlog, terminally ill patients being blocked from medications, refusal to include many illnesses that respond to cannabis and caregivers fearing being hauled away in handcuffs. All of this fear and trouble seems to be inflicted for personal profit. We’re literally extending periods of human suffering, to ensure members of our legislature and their personal friends can profit as much as possible. Are we trying to save lives or not? High quality medical cannabis is already available on the black market, how is this new plan supposed to improve on that?
Black market dealers currently deliver your meds today with no prescription needed, and they don’t require that you sign over your personal data. I’m not sure this new law is going to meet its intended purpose. I’m certain we’ll be ripping it up and starting over again during the Moses administration.
Perhaps this is being done purposefully to continue the the siphoning of minor drug offenders from the streets into our prison labor system. These tyrannical laws are disproportionately affecting people of color. According to Black Lives Matter – Utah our arrest rates are at a ratio of 11 to 1, for people of color vs their pale counterparts.
Sigh…what are your thoughts on this new cannabis law?
Warmly,
Zachary Moses
Utah’s Next Governor
For more blogs by Zachary, consider reading his take on Utah’s Homeless crisis.
I have PTSD so complex that I had to go on disability and survive with Medicare and Medicaid. No health care provider I see using this insurance is willing to prescribe a medical cannabis card, even though I have documentation showing I have been evaluated by a doctor with a PhD in psychiatry. The other alternatives are these cannabis doctors that charge $2-300 for initial visit, $1-150 for mandatory follow-up and $1-150 for mandatory 6-month checkups. This cost is in addition to the fees for the card itself and cost of the cannabis. I am living under the poverty line and these costs place this life-saving medication out of reach.
I worry that many of our soldiers with PTSD also cannot access this medication and will die, and that is a TRAVESTY!
Do we have to wait until cannabis is legalized federally?
to felonies. Just a few years later, he began his practice as a family lawyer.