Actually, we could use a few more

Read an interesting article the other day about chiropractors.

See, I had googled, “Were chiropractors accepted as doctors?” Several posts popped up, including a chiropractor that boasts it is a six-time winner of the Houston Chronicle’s Best of the Best.
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This website includes a history of the chiropractic profession, which started in 2700 B.C., and has been updated a few times since then.

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“Chiropractors were initially thrown in jail for practicing medicine without a license until Chiropractic became its own health profession with a licensing board,” it reads. “It has gone from being an ‘alternative medicine’ to much more mainstream…”

I have a point. It is ironic that Commissioner Jeff Kinnard, a chiropractor and a good one at that, would suggest we need a tighter grip on medical marijuana dispensaries.

Kinnard wants the county attorney to develop an ordinance restricting how close a medical marijuana “treatment center” can locate to a school.

Kinnard believes there is a “proliferation” of these medical marijuana palaces. Only a matter of time before the younguns get their hands on all that pot, and then look out.

Oh, please.

I come to this subject through experience. I’m a medical marijuana cardholder and can say that reality doesn’t come close to matching the fantasy. These aren’t opium dens. Teens don’t hang around The Flowery hoping for a gummy handout.

The lack of understanding of medical marijuana doesn’t surprise me. We’re conditioned to bow to the pharmaceutical altar, or other traditional forms of medicine, and think that medical marijuana is reserved for potheads who sit around in their underwear watching The Brady Bunch reruns.

It’s not. It’s for people like me who have tried all that traditional stuff, spent all the money, and been treated like a guinea pig by doctors who refused to admit they were as stumped as I was. I spent years searching for an answer.

And I wasn’t exactly first in line when medical marijuana came along in 2017. As a sober alcoholic, I strongly doubted the veracity of the med marijuana claims. Even when I decided to go for it, I had little faith in consistent positive results.

I was wrong. Way wrong. It’s worked exactly as advertised. So, I have a few thoughts on the commissioner’s idea:

— How it’s regulated: Medical marijuana “treatment centers” (that’s the formal name, but it’s a dispensary) are in the same category as pharmacies. Local government has very little say, other than a 500-foot setback from schools. What goes for one goes for the other. The government could ban new dispensaries, as Crystal River has done, but it can’t create regulatory burdens.

— Kinnard’s suggestion that the county enact the setback to schools seems based on an unrealistic fear. There’s nothing about these dispensaries that suggests kids need protection. They are state-regulated to the teeth. All the windows are blocked, as you see in today’s photo. These places can’t advertise in the traditional sense. I’m telling ya, it’s not fun.

— Kinnard believes there is a “proliferation” of medical marijuana dispensaries in Citrus County. There is not. I mean…not even close. We have seven by my count, and six of those are within the city limits of Crystal River or Inverness. The only dispensary outside the cities is Trulieve in Homosassa.

If there are others, they weren’t found in my website searches. 

— It bugs me when people suggest there’s something immoral about medical marijuana. There isn’t. Not for everyone, granted. About 900,000 Floridians carry medical marijuana cards. 

— Those same people give the impression that MM patients are getting high right there at the distribution site. That’s like saying I’m popping two Oxys soon as I get my prescription filled at Walgreens. Again…where does this thinking originate?

— None of this is easily affordable. In fact, it’s crazy expensive. I shop, if that’s the right word, for deals from dispensaries such as Trulieve, The Flowery, and Green Dragon. Discouraging competition hurts consumers.

— Finally, I’d like to urge an open mind. I mentioned that Kinnard is a chiropractor. He’s my chiropractor, and Dr. Kinnard is so good at it that I haven’t been to see him in about a year. I still do these neck stretching tricks he taught me. The guy knows his back-cracking stuff.

Well, we see how the public viewed his profession in the early days. I hope medical marijuana is going through those same birth pains that we’ll eventually grow out of.

Recreational marijuana, if that comes, is a totally different animal. Regulate away, commissioners.

Medical marijuana fits a specific niche for certain people. Let’s not make this more difficult, OK?

Have an awesome Thursday, friends.

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