Have you ever wondered if you’d benefit from being a patient of a medical marijuana doctor?

Of course, if you live in states where a doctor’s official recommendation is required when you want a state-issued marijuana card allowing you to purchase legal cannabis or (in some states) grow your own, you must have a medical marijuana doctor.

But what I’m talking about is having a medical marijuana doctor so you have professional advice about using cannabis. Let me describe for you just one of many situations in which that’s useful…

One of my marijuana customers is an older gentleman named Terry. He used to be a triathlete, and started buying cannabis from me because years of competition created musculoskeletal injuries, and nothing works better for pain relief than cannabis.

Using a couple of ounces per month, he dealt with his pain, was able to exercise, and needed no other drugs or therapies.

Terry was one of those marijuana users who could consume massive amounts of cannabis with no apparent side-effects, other than a persistent cough because he combusted his buds instead of vaporized them.

But then he started losing weight fast. His energy levels and muscle strength dropped off a cliff. He went to a doctor and after a battery of tests was dismayed to learn he had an aggressive cancer in his liver, and another in his lungs.

Knowing of research that provides preliminary evidence that THC and other cannabis substances fight cancer tumors, and also knowing medical cannabis is used as a palliative drug to help people deal with effects of chemotherapy, he started buying more cannabis from me.

He was placed on chemotherapy along with several other pharmaceutical drugs. The chemotherapy and other drugs had serious negative side effects.

What worried me is he said using cannabis seemed to create negative effects he’d never gotten from it before, such as dizziness, balance and coordination problems, and near-blackouts.

As a cannabis journalist, I immediately started researching cannabis interactions with pharma drugs including cancer drugs.

It became obvious to me right away that cannabis could interact negatively with some of these other substances, creating more harm than good.

I also saw that cannabis stresses the liver, and that anyone with lung cancer or emphysema should not be inhaling combusted cannabis, maybe not even vaporized cannabis. This was one of the fatal mistakes made by marijuana seeds guru and Weed Nerd Subcool, who continued to inhale combusted cannabis and cannabis concentrates long after he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Armed with this knowledge, I converted Terry to dry sift and tinctures to decrease the lung damage from his marijuana use.

It helped his lungs, but he still reported feeling dizzy and off-balance after getting high, which had never happened before cancer treatment started.

I realized I was an amateur trying to play doctor, and that Terry should become the patient of a medical marijuana doctor for the following reasons:

  • The doctor could be part of the treatment team with Terry’s other physicians, coordinating medication approaches with full knowledge of drug interactions.
  • The doctor could certify Terry for a medical marijuana card, giving him access to dispensaries that sold a much wider range of cannabis products than I could manufacture. Some of these products, such as activated cannabis capsules and beverages, would give Terry the cannabinoids and terpenoids he needed, without damaging his besieged lungs.
  • The doctor could provide authoritative advice to Terry about dosage amounts, modes, frequency, and side-effects, and monitor the patient professionally.

Terry was at first resistant to seeing a medical marijuana doctor. He didn’t think he needed one. It costs a lot for the exam and certification. He didn’t trust most doctors and already had enough doctoring in his life, he said.

His wife was more motivated to get him a medical cannabis physician than he was, so she called nearly a dozen medical marijuana doctors and discovered they knew nothing about cannabis. They were just profiteers with medical degrees who entered the medical cannabis industry to make money.

All you had to do was go to their office, pay a hefty fee, fill out a form, and they’d certify you for medical cannabis.

Problem is, these doctors were incapable of providing comprehensive, accurate medical cannabis advice. Their services were just a business transaction.

When I looked at the websites of doctors she called, I suspected they were amateurs merely interested in making money. I called a few of those providers and asked the most basic questions about marijuana pharmacology, modes of use, benefits, and side-effects. Their lack of cannabis knowledge was shocking and scandalous.

So here’s the heart of the matter…

In Terry’s situation and many others (including perhaps yours), having a medical cannabis doctor can be beneficial, but how do you find one who knows the latest science about marijuana and is also a skilled, caring medical doctor?

Subscribe to Growing Marijuana Perfectly, because you’ll find out in our next article on this topic!

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