Colorado Medical Marijuana Blog

True to form, the medical marijuana business has provided more challenges to lawmakers and business owners alike. The State has recently approved a two million dollar budget to hire temporary processors to eliminate the backlog of medical marijuana applicants. According to state officials, the backlog has grown to over 60,000 unprocessed applications. This is problematic in more ways than one. First, new Colorado cannabis laws require medical marijuana applications to be processed in thirty five days – woops. Also, this opens the door for more fraudulent activity as patients are using their State provided paperwork in lieu of a license. Finally, it has opened the door to forgery and fraudulent activity as the backlog has created a mess of paperwork that makes it easier for fraudulent paperwork to be unnoticed. The rules and boundaries have become clearer when it comes to medical marijuana in Colorado. Now it is a matter of controlling and enforcing rules and regulations.

Over the weekend, the Oriental Theater hosted Colorado’s Caregiver Cup. Competition focused mainly on marijuana strains judged on aroma, flavor, and aesthetics. Although growing in popularity, the competition adhered to state laws and was only open to Colorado medical marijuana cardholders and caregivers. Additionally, there was no onsite distribution or ingestion. The “People's Choice Award”, the highest honor, was given to a strain named “Grape God”. As mentioned in early articles, fruity strains with high indica content tend to be most popular among patients as this strain delivered on both counts: heavy indica content with a strong grapefruit aroma. Cannabis Cup competitions were first introduced in Amsterdam where public consumption is accepted. Although Colorado’s version is still in its infancy, this is yet another example of growing acceptance and popularity among the public.

For many patients in Colorado, medical marijuana use can be the most effective treatment for nausea available. Medical marijuana can help reduce nausea and actually stimulate the appetite, reducing the risk of weight loss in patients with such diseases as AIDS and cancer. In a study in 2007 where scientists surveyed HIV-positive marijuana smokers, the drug was shown to actually increase caloric intake and assist with weight gain. For those patients who do not respond to traditional forms of nausea medication, the use of medical marijuana has been shown to be not only a cost effective alternative, but symptoms actually improved to a greater degree as opposed to the use of clinical medicals. In a study by the New York State Journal of Medicine, 56 patients who did not respond to traditional medicine showed improvement when the use of medical marijuana was introduced.