One month ago I was arrested for cannabis and while right now I'm still unable to share the details at this time I do want to share what happened after and how one month later I found myself a New Jersey medical marijuana patient. Back when I started this website around November 2017 and in the months prior I began a quest to learn more about something I've used medically for many years.. marijuana.. cannabis.. weed..
During that time my feelings about cannabis evolved and came to be summed up in a few words: all cannabis use is medical.
Even though I would qualify for the NJ Medical Marijauna Program prior to my arrest I didn't really consider joining mainly for two reasons. On principle I see all current Cannabis laws as additional prohibition even those that exist to increase medical access. The other reason is at this time there's no ATC within even an hours drive from my home. One month ago didn't really see the reason to pay to put myself on another government list for the right to drive further and pay more.. but One month plus a day everything seemed different.
I couldn't risk having what just happened to me happen again even if the chances were slim it was a risk I couldn't take. I know I'm over here hiding behind a pineapple right now but I assure you that I'm a real person a real Dad a real small business owner who just wound up in some bracelets and made the papers over some weed.
So I started to look more closely at the NJ Medical Marijuana Program and without talking too much about my health conditions and such I'll try and explain things. I researched in more detail the qualifying conditions and found that I would surely be eligible with my diagnosed condition and so I contacted my doctor. I spoke with their office it was a Friday. I didn't hear back so I called again on Tuesday still waiting to talk to the Doctor they said. Over that weeked however I was poking around reddit and saw a thread with some information about Veriheal and how their service helps connect doctors with patients and simplifies the process. At this point I was still hoping to hear back from my Doctor but by the time I spoke with their office again on Tuesday I didn't feel like they had taken my request seriously and lost hope they'd be able to help me.
I spoke with some others on reddit that evening feeling more confident Veriheal could help me I contacted them and decided to ask their support team some questions about the process. Tbey were helpful and able to answer the questions I had about the 3 mo certification vs 1 year and what types of health information I needed for the consult. After I paid the $199 fee they scheduled my appointment with the doctor for the next day online.
I logged on to their system at the required time and was greeted by the doctor at the exact time of the appointment. Does that ever happen in an actual doctors office? I know it never has for me. Again without disclosing too much about my health information the Doctor and I spoke she asked details about my conditions and whether I'd had previous experience self medicating with cannabis. After the evaluation was completed and she let me know I'd be approved from the program and to wait for the reccomendation email that you use to apply with the state. I had the email that next day and from there was able to submit my application to the state.
You'll need the registry ID number given to you and some additional information to apply with the New Jersey Medical Marijuana Program. You need a photo for the card, government ID and proof of NJ residence. The state charges you $100 unless you qualify for a $20 fee under the condidtions listed here. After I sent everything to the state I had the card in hand about 10 days later.
I'll be creating a new Veriheal FAQ page on njlegalize.me to help answer more questions. I know since I posted about it in the past few weeks many of you have reached out to me on Twitter and I'm happy to help in anyway I can. Using the njlegalize.me Veriheal links helps support my work here and I appreciate that greatly. Thanks for reading this far. Please consider registering a user account here as I'm going to be rolling out more and more new features over the next few months and I'd love to have you along for the ride.
full disclosure: njlegalize.me has partnered with Veriheal to help bring access to Medical Marijuana to more patients here in New Jersey and in other states where available. We receive a small referral bonus for those who use Veriheal's service from our link.
