I waited for years to get access to some form of legal marijuana.
My friends and I in school had to risk losing our places in our liberat arts university by breaking the law purchasing it and consuming it in our individual dorm rooms. Living in an house off campus wasn’t any better because all of us could get pulled over by a police officer on the way back from a drug dealer’s house. This particularly happened to me once while I was a senior, just a single year away from my college graduation. The police officer who pulled me over was harshly nice to me and just wanted me to realize that our headlights had quit entirely working. I was relieved that he didn’t pick up on the odor of cannabis in the car or I would have been arrested that night or at least given a stern warning. Nowadays I don’t have to worry about being a criminal while using this appealing plant. I have a state-issued medical marijuana card that I can use at any of the medical marijuana stores in this state. On top of shielding me from legal action, this medical marijuana card also gives me the privilege of buying cannabis products that are subjected to rigorous lab testing and regulatory scrutiny from the state’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use. Even in situations where companies tried to sell products after a bad lab test report came back, I have seen the OMMU jump in and force the company to publicly post about the complication so their customers can see it. That’s why the regulatory scrutiny is equally important as the requirement for lab testing because you need a state government that is willing to crack down on offenders who abuse the system. Otherwise it creates an environment where companies have no incentive to avoid gaming the system.