Medical Marijuana Program was established by the Medical Marijuana California to provide a voluntary medical identification card and register qualified patients and caregivers.
The web based program allows the law enforcers to access and verify the validity of the patients possessing the registered card. These cards allow qualified patients and caretakers to be in possession of marijuana. They are also allowed to grow transport and use medical marijuana in California.
Under the Senate Bill 420, the medical marijuana program is administered to patients only in their county of residence. According to California Department of Health (para 2) a physician is mandated with issuance of a recommendation to help the patient obtain marijuana for medication purposes.
The patient is then given a card for identifying him/herself as legally allowed to have medical marijuana. It is upon both the state and county to cater for the expenses involved in the program.
On 5th November, 1996, the residents of California passed the proposition 215 and an initiative measure was added to the Health and Safety Code also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. The main purpose of the act was to improve the health of people who have serious ailments in California through giving them the right to use and possess marijuana for medical purposes where it is deemed appropriate by a physician.
There should be reason to administer the marijuana if it would benefit the patient in the treatment of including chronic pain, AIDS, spasticity, arthritis, and many more ailments (ProCon.org para 3). Secondly, the act was formulated to ensure both the patient and the caregivers who obtain and use marijuana are not liable to criminal prosecution for being in possession of the drugs.
Generally marijuana is an illegal drug; both growers and users that do not have a license to grow and use marijuana are in violation of the law and serious consequences are imminent if one is found. The health and safety code provides protection for physicians who are participating in the implementation of the act.
The provision states that no physician will be punished or be denied rights for prescribing medical marijuana, given that he does it within the legal framework (Medical Board of California para 4).
Medical Board of California formulated the above statement due to the rising and emerging treatment modes using medical marijuana. The statement is a relief to physicians since it assures them that they will not be prosecuted or be subject to investigation by the Medical Board of California if they recommend medical marijuana as part of their regular practice of medicine to their patients.
A physician cannot be investigated without substantial information or additional information being produced against the physician for not complying with the accepted standards. For a physician to offer recommendation for the use of marijuana by his or her patients, the physician must first follow reasonable and prudent steps for approving the medication just like any medication.
These accepted standards include the following: The physician should first check the history of the patient and the appropriate prior examination of the patient. The physician should also develop a treatment plan for the patient with medical objectives. They should also discuss the possible side effects of using medical marijuana and should probe for informed consent.
The physicians should also do a periodic review of the treatment and how the patients respond to the medical marijuana. They should also ensure that the consultation is a necessity for prescriptions and lastly, physicians should keep proper records which support their decision for prescribing the use of medical marijuana.
Union Collective is an organization that grows, tests, sells, and delivers medical marijuana to patients who have been recommended to use it by a physician. The patient and the caregiver must possess identification from the Medical Marijuana Program for one to qualify to use and even grow medical cannabis. The Union Collective strives to ensure availability of high quality organic medicinal cannabis to qualified patients only.
They also aim to eliminate use of harsh chemicals and pesticides and to enhance a fine taste medicine. Furthermore, the union is a caregiver that provides services to ailing patients suffering from ailments such as terminal cancer, glaucoma, autoimmune diseases, sleeping disorders, nausea, and anorexia among others.
The Union Collective medical marijuana is organically grown and is local and found in the hills of North California. The medical marijuana is only restricted to patients who are qualified and recommended by a physician for the medical marijuana program.
The members of Union Collective have an advantage since the medical marijuana has been made readily available and consistently offer supply of quality organic medicine. Union Collective has grown sufficient medical marijuana to ensure that they meet the market needs. The number of patients has been increasing yearly, hence Union Collective keeps on expanding their growth and production services.
Secondly, they have an unparalleled delivery services through conserving hygiene, attention, and good services to their patients. The delivery services come with several benefits and advantages. They offer very unique services that are very catchy to the caregivers and the patients.
These advantages are as follows: One is that they offer free delivery throughout the purchase process; no additional costs are included and the patient or the caregivers who order them pay only the stated price. Second is that there is a short time span for delivery.
Placing an order between 11am and 8:30 pm will enable a purchaser to get it within two hours from the time of ordering. The quick delivery is done so as to increase efficiency and to help in cases of emergency (Union Collective para 3).
Thirdly, payment is only done after the order has been delivered and inspection has been done by the patient. Medical marijuana should be of great quality and should be carefully inspected by the patient to ensure it is of the right specification as the patient ordered. Fourthly, all their products are free of molds, fungus, and other contaminants. They guarantee quality through lab-tests and ensuring that they are untainted.
Through the lab-tests, they ensure that the risks of health problems are reduced or minimized by testing that the medical marijuana is fully fit for consumption by the patients. Fifthly, pre-sale viewing is allowed through inspection of products using UV light for moulds and fungus.
This ensures that its users are certain of the quality of the products they are purchasing, hence avoiding health risks pertaining to medical marijuana that is contaminated or fungi infested. Sixthly, professional caregivers in the Union Collective are highly knowledgeable and they consistently offer good services to their patients. It is important that medical marijuana be used very well and for medicinal purposes only.
Recreational use of the medical marijuana is not allowed and only qualified patients should use them. Therefore, a professional caregiver is important for advice or monitoring the use of the drug by qualified patients. Finally, Union Collective also deliver clones for patients to grow their own top-grade and untainted medical marijuana.
They also provide advice on how to grow the clones safely and how to avoid cases of contamination and infestation by pests. The clones are also provided so that the patients and caregivers can efficiently avail medical marijuana for themselves (Union Collective para 3).
Union Collective delivers their medical marijuana over a wide scope of area in California. The places that Union collective delivers in San Francisco includes Atherton, Belmont, Pacifica, Burlingame, San Carlos, Redwood City, San Francisco Bay, South San Francisco and many others.
The supply of tested and quality medical marijuana has greatly benefitted the patients in the places they are supplied; they benefited from sufficient availability of the medical marijuana apart from its quality and safety.
Union Collective has produced a variety of medical marijuana and their latest products include Jack Herer, Skywalker OG Wax, Sour Diesel, Head Band, L.A Confidential, Bubba Kush, Big Pete’s Treat, Durban Poison Wax and Pot of Gold. These varieties of medical marijuana are of different shapes sizes and purposes. The wide variety offers treatment for various illnesses as recommended by the organization (Union Collective para 1).
Union Collective has evaluated the arguments against the recreational use of marijuana. They have determined that most people are not aware of the dangers of using medical marijuana recreationally. In San Francisco, medical marijuana is commonly used and is readily available for patients. However, there is the tendency of people using the medical marijuana for recreation purposes rather than for medicinal purposes.
The use of medical marijuana poses a great unseen risk to non prescribed users and also prescribed to a great extent. They warn that medical marijuana especially in the San Francisco bay area is of poor quality due to the use of chemicals to reduce insect infestation and microbial contaminants such as powdery mildew, fungi, and moulds.
Use of chemicals such as the chloramine is used to treat powdery mildew, however, it is highly toxic when ingested by burning and affects patients suffering from cancer and who are undergoing treatment such as chemotherapy. Moreover, insects are a menace during flowering and development of the medical cannabis plant.
In the event of insect infestation most grows will resort to use AvidTM to stop spider mites due to frustration and fear of losses. Spraying or watering with the chemicals to curb infestation leads to serious health effects when medical marijuana is used by patients from these growers (Union Collective para 4).
Furthermore, medical cannabis users face a major problem because they access their majority of medical marijuana from dispensaries that do not test the medical marijuana since they are not required to do so. Cities such as San Jose and San Francisco have the majority of dispensaries in Northern California but have exposed the users to great health risks by not requiring them to do screen tests on the medical cannabis.
In San Mateo County medical cannabis is more dangerous since it has no store front and relies only on delivery. Dispensaries in big cities have even offered to test the medical marijuana voluntarily to reduce the risk of intense effects of low quality medical marijuana.
Union Collective has many dispensaries operating in San Jose and San Francisco. Statistically, 90 percent of the marijuana in California is not tested which is very worrying. Some other laboratories stated off the record that approximately 50 to 70 percent of the medical cannabis that is consumed is not of high quality and are contaminated in one way or another.
Comparing to other states, California is far much better in regulation and screening of medical marijuana. There is also better control of the medical marijuana in terms of using and growing it (Union Collective para 2).
In Colorado, medical marijuana requires screening in dispensaries hence improving the safety of the patients. However, the problem with Colorado is that there is no specific standard of the application of chemistry in testing standards.
In conclusion, Union Collective recommends the importance of legal and illegal users to realize that medical grade cannabis is dangerous both in high quality and poor quality. The support of collectives – such as Union Collective – that test their medical marijuana should be supported until appropriate public health measures are taken into account by the relevant authorities (Union Collective 3).
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis of California has been done to provide information about the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and possible threats against marijuana. Union Collective has various strengths including its compliance with the required standards of administering the drugs to the patients.
Firstly, drugs are only given to qualified patients who have a genuine identification card from the Medical Marijuana Program. This has reduced the number of cases where medical marijuana is abused in California; cases of recreational use of medical marijuana are very common in California. Secondly, the drugs are of high quality and they have a wide variety of medical marijuana.
Their delivery services are quick and sufficient for all its customers. Furthermore, they are quiet cheap due to non-additional costs of transport and they are readily available for the market. Thirdly, they supply their products in many places especially San Francisco has largely benefitted from the extensiveness of the availability of medical marijuana.
Fourthly, Union Collective has knowledgeable caregivers who enhance safety and advice to qualified users. Lastly, they have taken an initiative to ensure that health risks emanating from the use of contaminated medical marijuana.
Contamination and fungus infestation of medical marijuana is a serious issue on health and it may lead to complications for patients. Through the safe measure for production of marijuana, its users can comfortably use the drugs without worrying about intoxication.
Weaknesses that Union Collective has are that there is a large amount of medical marijuana that is still in the market that is not tested. This poses a challenge to its users since they have not been able to convince the large number of users the importance of using tested medical marijuana.
Secondly, the delivery of clones to caregivers and patients who want to grow them could easily commercialize the marijuana and sell them to recreational users.
Union Collective has availed various opportunities that Union Collective has taken into account. Since they offer quality services for their patients, they should take advantage of various opportunities to expand their dispensaries throughout California. Due to the growing acknowledgement and recognition of medical marijuana they have an opportunity to further their services in the sector.
Medical marijuana is a growing treatment modality, and Union Collective should use the media to attract and to advertise the existence of safe and high quality medical marijuana. Moreover, they should also increase the number of professional personnel to improve the services and assurance (Legalize Medical Marijuana para 6).
Lastly, an analysis of the threats that Union Collective face is that there is a huge number of proliferated medical marijuana in the market that are not of great quality. This untested medical marijuana might lead to health problems and hence lead to a negative view of the medication it leads to questions of the side effects of using medical marijuana.
Recreational users also pose a threat to the medical marijuana; many use it without the recommendation of the physician or force the physician to administer the medical marijuana unnecessarily. There is also less support that is given by the government to address the intensity of the issues regarding health risks of using untested medical marijuana.
The government also has not supported collectives that genuinely test the medication (Debatepedia para 4). Some people sell the medical marijuana illegally due to the influx of dispensaries and has lead to federal threats (Klare para 1).
Social Media
Social media has been used by Union Collective to reach out to its customers; their website offers room for asking questions and online registration. Their website provides information about the existence of their medical marijuana products and their prices, quality, and their services in general.
Moreover, providing information on who is allowed and who is not allowed the medical marijuana and the effects of its use (Stryker 307). Their web also contains reports covering issues concerning the safety and dangers of using medical marijuana for both recreational purposes and medicinal purposes (Union Collective para 6).
Works Cited
California Department of Health. Medical Marijuana Program. Web.
Debatepedia. Debate: Medical marijuana dispensaries. Web.
Klare, Joe. MPP and LEAP react to new federal threats to medical marijuana in CA. 2011. Web.
Legalize Medical Marijuana. Use SWOT analysis business. Web.
Medical Board of California. Medical marijuana. Web.
Pro Con. Should marijuana be a medical option? Web.
Stryker, Joe Ellen. Articles media and marijuana: a longitudinal analysis of news media effects on adolescents’ marijuana use and related outcomes, 1977-1999. Journal on Health Communication 8.4 (2003): 305-328.
Union Collective. Medical marijuana delivery in San Francisco bay area. Web.