Happy 2011 budhoppers! As families and friends settle back into routines and our busy lives go back into overdrive for the new year, please take a moment to ensure your rights as a medical marijuana patient are protected.
We suggest the following To-Do List of 11 items to empower your current medical cannabis patient status.
Top 11 Things on Cannabis Patients To-Do List for 2011
01. Schedule your appointment with your GP, therapist or primary physician to discuss your medical condition and how medical marijuana has been relieving your symptoms and facilitating your treatment.
Our bodies change so much as our lives are constantly moving from calm to chaos, it's important that we patients keep on top of our medical concerns and that our primary physicians and/or therapists are aware of our fitness. Notify your doctor of your treatments and how medical marijuana is facilitating your therapies, affecting your mood and diet, and any questions you have about long-term use. If your recommendation came after an injury or surgery, this is a wonderful time of year to assess with your GP if adjusting your dose or strain or frequency of use will benefit you.
02. Optionally, set up an appointment with medical marijuana evaluation center.
There are a variety of compassionate and accessible medical centers who specialize in medical marijuana patient issues. Many dispensary providers, including budhopper.com Patient Services, require only a doctor's recommendation, state issued ID and age of majority to be able to serve new patients. Oftentimes, medicines are required when doctors are unavailable to provide confimation. These delays can be up to a week. Your local medical marijuana evaluation office can determine patient eligibility and if medicinal cannabis is recommended, as would your GP. The benefit of these private services is that confirmation of patient information is accessible 24-7, they offer a secure alternative to your family or work-place physician without taking the place of your GP and therapist. Be sure to bring records from your GP about your medical condition with you, otherwise the staff at the evaluation center will follow up on your behalf.
03. Update your documents on file with your cooperative.
Collectives and dispensaries generally have 1-year memberships, less if your doctor recommendation expires sooner. Be sure to visit or contact your cooperative and dispensaries to update your patient information. Secure your doctor recommendation in a Safe Deposit Box and keep your Patient ID and State issued ID on your person at all times.
04. Update your Privacy Settings on social networks.
It's just a good idea, kind of like switching out your 9-volts on your smoke alarms during Daylight Savings. Some social network sites occassionaly switch Privacy Settings to Default, so unless you regularly monitor your Privary Settings, there may be information you don't want out getting out. Conversely, if you are a promoter, you want to make sure what you're posting is being RTd and Liked!
05. Subscribe to Action Alerts.
This is really critical for 2011 and beyond. In our era of global media and intelligent communication tools, let us form a solid front as cannabis patients to commit to being active for our cause, supportive of our lobbyists and critical of our representatives when our issues are comprimised. Our voice has power and our time to connect as one is so present. There are ways we can participate and contribute to legalization, from local, state and federal levels; all conveniently done with a few clicks and the passion to hit Send. We always list a few in our Navigation Extras -> Hot Topics, which is a great place to start and get involved. Here's a list of current action calls:
- Support the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act (H.R. 2835)
- Thank Richard Lee, one of Prop. 19's Official Proponents
- Stop Michele Leonhart
- Support the Wo/Man's Alliance for Medical Marijuana WAMM
06. Donate and receive lifetime membership to the very important causes who make decriminalization probable.
07. Download and Print a copy of NORML's Freedom Card. Familiarize yourself with NORML's guidelines and carry The Freedom Card on your person at all times.
Here's more information about the Freedom Card. http://www.budhopper.com/budhopper-cannva-editorial/norml-foundation-freedom-card
Click here to download PDF version of NORML's Freedom Card. Print on card stock, double-sided, and cut to fit in wallet or billfold.
08. Tell someone about your medical cannabis patient status and honestly answer any questions.
If everyone of us patients committed to sharing our personal story with someone close to us but who may not realize what a typical, rather than stereotypical, medicinal marijuana patient represents -- this Drug War would not be costing us so much. A conversation or two goes a long way, especially when it starts beyond the snickers and one-liners, which is where we uniquely find ourselves today as we march into 2011. Pot smokers, cannabis patients, weed therapy, Rasta knowledge -- however it is conceived, we should be communicating as much as we consume. Look what this strategy of just talking about it has done for new recruits to the military. Not saying we want to recruit cannabis users; we only want to keep the conversation relevant and moving towards compassion and broadening comprehension. Baby Boomers are aging and their parents are quality candidates for medical cannabis. As long as Baby Boomers have the proper and researched information, they will be a more empowered demographic to consider cannabis treatment for the benefit of their aging loved ones with dementia, arthritis, glaucoma, cancer, and appetite maladies, and to inquire with their doctors about their options for both family and self.
09. Appoint a Caregiver whom you authorize to receive preferred strains when available on your behalf, even if you are not.
Patients' good days and bad days are not like everyone else's. Our good days keep us positive for months; our bad days break us down in an instance. Cannabis patients may consider appointing a Caregiver as an effective buddy system to ensuring you always have access to your choice of medicines. Often the rare strains are the ones that provide the most therapy, and these are rare for a reason -- everyone wants them and their yields are smaller than other strains. What can a patient do if a particular strain is available but the patient is not? A sought-after strain can sell-out in a matter of hours. Designating a Caregiver enables a patient to call on the assistance of a Caregiver to purchase strains as soon as they come available, even if the patient is unavailable or unable to make it to the dispensary or delivery appointment. budhopper.com Patient members can designate a Caregiver by completing the Primary Caregiver Agreement available here.
10. Join a Stretch class, 420 Meet-Up, or some other group new to you and commit to being more active and social through the rest of the new year.
This is something Yours Truly is personally struggling with, wink. There are so many ways to safely meetup and organize with other patients and activists in your area as well as on-line through virtual worlds and forums. Proper relaxed breathing is imparative to overall wellbeing and provides the lung conditioning to make the most of every dose. The social benefits of sharing ideas, recipes and conversation cannot be over-stated. Today's Apps make it simple, allow you to protect your privacy while perusing details about the Meetup group, and encourage you to be Mobile, connected and well-informed. Check out our Cannabis Web Portal, Meetups, and suggest your own groups to be listed.
11. Start a Patient Blog or keep a private patient journal.
It's no secret, and it is a consistent detail of any well-executed life: keeping a daily journal is important for the sake of your health. Deciding to keep a Patient Blog is an empowering way to share your experiences with others. Our stories are connected in one way or another and one of the strongest senses human beings have is our Bullshit Meter. There is so much BS about cannabis out there, either due to politics, religion or commercial interest, whatever -- we can do something one person, one group, one community at a time by sharing our personal stories, using our personal voices. Fuck the editors. Really, fuck the editors. I mean, self-edit is always good, but you never know what phrase or idea will lead to discussion, will manifest revolution, will fulfill the inevitable liberation of the herb and our people. It's a Blog, not a book. If you have questions how to get started, budhoppers need only contact our Patient Member Concierge volunteers for complimentary assistance in setting up with a YouTube channel, WordPress blog or Blogger site, or spruce up your budhopper profile and get you writing articles and covering events. At the very least, patients need a private App that helps track medicines, affects and reactions. Many of our patient members report how they often forget when they were feeling lousy, especially after they medicate and they are so comforted, that time is hard to gauge. By keeping a patient journal, our members report their appointments with their therapists are facilitated by their notes on appetite, mood, sleep patterns and any significant dreams or recurring thoughts. Ask your therapist for a journal template or send us a PM through budhopper to request a Self-Evaluation form useful for general well-being.
