[Payaso]

Montanans have a reason to smile, the cannabis caravan may visit their town soon! Medical patients will have the opportunity to see a medical professional and get a recommendation for cannabis.

As Bob Marley music wailed in the next room, the makeshift clinic hummed along like an assembly line: Patients went in to see a doctor, paid $150 and walked out with permission to buy and smoke medical marijuana.

So it went, all day, at a hotel just blocks from the state Capitol that was the latest stop of the so-called cannabis caravan, a band of doctors and medical marijuana advocates roaming Montana to sign up thousands of patients.

"You're helping end suffering on this planet for human beings," clinic organizer Jason Christ said as he sat outside the hotel in an RV filled with pot smoke.

To the dismay of state medical authorities and lawmakers, the caravans have helped the number of pot cardholders in Montana swell over the past year from about 3,000 to 15,000.

Christ's group, Montana Caregivers Network, will take the caravan out of Montana later this month for the first time, with clinics scheduled in three Michigan cities: Detroit, Kalamazoo and Lansing. He said pot advocates from several other states — including New Mexico, New Jersey and Hawaii — have contacted him to inquire about setting up similar businesses.

The state medical board is trying to curtail the mass screenings and recently fined a physician who participated in a similar clinic in the first disciplinary action taken against a doctor in a Montana medical marijuana case. The board found that the doctor had seen about 150 people in 14½ hours, or roughly a patient every six minutes, nowhere near enough to provide appropriate care in the eyes of medical observers.

The board also recently reminded physicians that they must perform thorough examinations, take medical histories, discuss alternative treatments and monitor patients' response to the cannabis — standards that typically apply when prescribing other medication.



"Be on the alert. You are still held to these same standards," said Jean Branscum, the board's executive director.

The roving cannabis caravans appear to be unique to Montana, although mobile marijuana operations have arisen elsewhere. A rolling marijuana dispensary in California sold chocolate-covered cookies, brownies, pretzels and other marijuana-laced items out of an RV before authorities moved to shut it down.

From the story here.

[Pseudo]

AWESOME!!!! drive that friggin bus over to my state!!!

[grow1620]

I heard these are going to be stopped due to the doctors not providing any followup care. There's quite a stir about them lately.

I've been to a few and it's pretty cool to mingle with other people involved in the medical scene, and it's wonderful that they're helping people get their cards, but I think these traveling clinics have run their course....at least in MT...and I think that's why they're now venturing to other states.

edit: I want to add that alot of patients and caregivers in MT are upset with MCN for a few reasons including forcing patients to sign up a caregiver when they register for a card, telling people that they absolutely have to register a caregiver, and of course they have plenty of reps on hand for you to sign up with. You do not have to sign up a caregiver when you apply for your medical card, it can be done at any time, it is not a requirement. Yet, MCN requires you to do so when you sign up, telling patients that they have no choice.

[!!!]

that's a skinny ass joint.

[U4EA]

Originally Posted by !!!

that's a skinny ass joint.

Hahahaha wow!! That's almost exactly what I was gonna say.

[mr. bojangles]

haha skeeter leg

[okwildfire]

Yeah..Most of us up here don't do the medi thing..Plant number's are way to low..Besides, A state with about ten cop's..We don't have to worry much! I all most went for the card..But figured what they don't know..Wont hurt em..

[JamieShoes]

"The board found that the doctor had seen about 150 people in 14½ hours"


at 150 bucks a pop, that's a good days "caregiving"

[RESINvention]

^^ YAH it is, 22k in a day, not bad.. Lol and that joint is skinny, and I think it's being rolled backwards too, check the glue strip I think there is a market in Montana for pre-rolled joints

I've noticed that when you go to a doctor they only spend 5-10 minutes with you, whether they are prescribing marijuana or pain pills. It's a double standard.