In order to get a Montana Medical Marijuana Program card, you must first determine if you qualify for this right. The context of MT Initiative I-148 clearly states the definition of "Debilitating medical condition" as per the law.
(1) "Debilitating medical condition" means:
(a) cancer, glaucoma, or positive status for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), or the treatment of these conditions;
(b) a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following:
(i) cachexia or wasting syndrome;
(ii) severe or chronic pain;
(iii) severe nausea;
(iv) seizures, including but not limited to seizures caused by epilepsy; or
(v) severe or persistent muscle spasms, including but not limited to spasms caused by multiple sclerosis
Once you have determined you qualify you will need to speak to your current doctor about a medical marijuana recommendation or find a doctor willing to "recommend" medical marijuana. (Doctors are not allowed to "prescribe" marijuana because a prescription has to be dispensed by a licensed pharmacist and since marijuana is currently not legal at a federal level no pharmacist can dispense it. This requires the use of recommendation and not prescription to differentiate.) This topic is a very touchy subject with some doctors, while others are very open to the idea of natural medicine and the proven medicinal benefits of marijuana for their patients. If your doctor is not willing to consider marijuana as a legitimate treatment for you, find another that will, it is your health. No one knows your body better then you do, the same applies to the medicines that you take, only you can know if they are helping your or not, or if they are causing you harm. It is also worth noting that some doctors will blatantly refuse to even consider signing the state required physicians recommendation form due to their association to the federal government and medicare. Since Marijuana is still wrongly classified as a Schedule I drug, it cannot be seen to have any medicinal value no matter what science says about it, obviously an error in the system if someone's ideals can outweigh scientific evidence. This is also the reason why there are "Marijuana Clinics" popping up all over the state and the other states that have medical marijuana laws. For instance, the THC-Foundation is one of these clinics. They provide a simple service of a doctor to review your medical records, give you a physical evaluation and determine if you qualify for a doctors recommendation for medical marijuana. Without these clinics a large number of qualifying patients would never receive their recommendation. If your interested in learning more about a public, or private Hope Caregivers of Montana sponsored, doctor recommendation clinic contact us.
The few doctors around the state that are widely known to believe the relationship between a doctor and patient does not include the Federal Government's non-scientific point of view are usually booked several months in advance. These doctors are willing to take your existing medical records, review them and determine if you meet the criteria for marijuana recommendation per Initiative 148 require you much in the way that the clinics do. No matter which path you choose, wither will require you attend their educational session and have a physical performed by the doctor. These educational sessions are, at minimum, 30 minute one-on-one doctor/patient interview and, at maximum, a three (3) hour group setting lecture with question & answer.
These educational sessions are provided to help you, the patient, understand the in's and out's of the Montana Medical Marijuana Act.
Make sure you prepare yourself by researching Medical Marijuana before attending a Marijuana Clinic or visiting a recommending doctor, the more knowledge you have the better off you are. This also allows you to digest the information available and form your own personal questions for the doctor.
After you have found a doctor willing to "recommend" marijuana as a treatment for your ailment, you and the doctor will need to fill out the required forms and submit them to the state of Montana's Medical Marijuana Program within the DPHHS Quality Assurance Division for approval. It is recommended that at this time you also designate your choosen caregiver. If you do not have a caregiver you must rely solely on yourself to grow your own medicine. While this is the primary method Hope Caregivers of Montana recommends for obtaining your medicine, growing your own, we understand that there are "dry" times, pest infestations, mold and many other things that can have an ill effect on your personal crop.
If you fail to designate a caregiver when you submit your initial application you will not legally be able to have any medicine until you first get your card from Helena and then grow your medicine. Under the current state law it is illegal to start growing your medical marijuana until you receive your MMMP card because it is an application and not a guarantee. Thus you will have a minimum of 60 days with your card but no medicine because it is cultivating and you have no one to purchase any dried medicine from. If you designate a caregiver, you will have medicine the day your card arrives from Helena.
A caregivers primary role is to supply medicine to their patients when they are out as well and provide all the medicine patients that cannot grow their own need. Approval can take anywhere from 5-8 weeks depending on the number of applications being received in Helena at any given time.
*Update* Currently Helena is reporting a 7 week delay in sending out cards due to the current volume of applications. Please be patient. Also remember you must not send in a Caregiver change request until you are a current Montana Medical Marijuana Program card holder. Lastly, Helena is reporting that if your a patient that frequently changes caregivers, they are now logging this and moving your applications, renewals and caregiver change requests to the bottom of the pile, thus delaying your card even more. Take the time to designate a trustworthy, reliable caregiver that provides you the medicine you need when you need it - your paying them for this service.
Once your application is approved the Deputy Administrator within the DPHHS QA Division, Roy Kemp, staff will send you a packet of information and your card. Your card will have your personal information on the front and your designated caregivers on the back assuming you designated one. Again, it is important to note that while you do not have to designate a caregiver when you submit your initial paperwork, it is beneficial to do so in order to expedite the process and not bog down the folks in Helena with caregiver change requests for current MMMP card holders switching caregivers. Currently anyone that wishes to change caregivers must submit a Change Request Form within 10 days of any changes to you or your designated caregiver status. Obviously this makes the folks in Helena's job more time consuming, thus delaying new patients from getting their cards and moving forward with their marijuana treatment.
From receipt of your Montana Medical Marijuana Program Card you are eligible to grow your own six plants and purchase medical marijuana from your designated caregiver who can also begin growing six plants on your behalf. Currently, Montana doesn't subscribe to the "dispensary" idea, instead the state currently requires a one-to-one relationship between the patient and the caregiver. Outside of the patient growing their own cannabis, their designated marijuana caregiver is the only other person in the state of Montana the patient is legally able to obtain their medical marijuana from. While there are some other interpretations of the MT state medical marijuana law regarding this, Hope Caregivers of Montana follows the aforementioned definition and does not deviate for any reason.
It is worth noting that the Montana Medical Marijuana Program Card expires after one (1) year, therefore you will have to renew your card every year. Part of the informational packet you will receive from the state upon acceptance into the program details this and states that the MMMP will send you a renewal packet 90 days prior to your expiration. * *Update* The DPHHS no longer sends out renewal packets, it is the responsibility of the patient to remember when their MMMP card expires and ensure that they have submitted their renewal application 45 days before expiration of their card. * We at Hope Caregivers of Montana will also do whatever is needed to ensure your status does not lapse. We provide travel assistance to people that need to get to their doctor offices for their renewal check up but are unable to do so, contact us and we can discuss how we can suit your needs in this regard and others pertaining to your medical marijuana caregiver needs.