Back when we only had access to the black market for cannabis here in my home state, my friends and I constantly dreamt of someday living in a state with access to medical marijuana.
At the time only a handful of states nationwide had medical cannabis programs of some kind, leaving the rest of the country to grapple with black markets.
Don’t get me wrong, I have definitely purchased some amazing marijuana on the black market in the past; but no matter how good that weed was at the time, I cannot be sure it was totally safe for me to consume compared to what I find nowadays at a medical cannabis dispensary where lab testing is required. While there are certainly cases where dispensaries were busted fraudulently buying preferable lab results from unscrupulous labs, I’d much rather take my chances with medical cannabis that is at least more likely than not to have gone through some form of lab quality control. Unfortunately, it’s expensive being a medical cannabis patient in my state. The card with the state is $75 every year and I have to see my marijuana doctor at least twice, with each visit costing $150 in cash. But if I don’t maintain my medical cannabis card, I could get in trouble if I was ever pulled over and a cop found marijuana in my bag or trunk. Plus, you can’t beat the peace of mind you get when shopping for cannabis in a dispensary opposed to the black market. There are phenomenal products at many of our state’s best cannabis dispensaries so you can’t be it regardless.