We’ll have a look at the Medical Marijuana Laws in California and show you if and how you can qualify.

The Medical Marijuana Identification Card Program (MMICP)

The MMICP was established to create a state-authorized Medical Marijuana Identification Card, and a registry database for verification of qualified patients and their caregivers. Participation by both patients and caregivers is voluntary. The Medical Marijuana Program registry allows law enforcement to verify the validity of a qualified patient or caregiver and allows cardholders to possess legally, grow, transport and use medical cannabis within California state lines.

The California Medical Marijuana Identification Card Program is only available to California residents with certain medical conditions. Medical cannabis products are distributed by State approved dispensaries only. If you believe your medical condition(s) qualifies for a Medical Marijuana card, discuss your symptoms and condition with your doctor.

What conditions qualify for the Medical Marijuana Identification Card Program in California?

Patients in California diagnosed with one or more of the following medical conditions qualify for a Medical Marijuana Identification Card:

• AIDS
• Anorexia
• Arthritis
• Cachexia
• Cancer
• Chronic pain
• Glaucoma
• Migraines
• Persistent muscle spasms, including multiple sclerosis
• Seizures, including epilepsy
• Sever nausea

Will additional conditions be added to the list of qualifying conditions?

Other chronic or persistent medical symptoms that are not included on the above list, that either limit a person’s ability to conduct one or more major life activities as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, may qualify for the use of medical cannabis.

Where to find a Medical Marijuana Doctor in CA?

California law requires all medical cannabis physicians to be licensed. Given that CA was the first state to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes, there is a large number of licensed physicians throughout the state. You’ll most likely find a licensed doctor very close to where you’re located.

Where are the legal cannabis dispensaries in California

There are legal cannabis dispensaries in more than 50 cities throughout California. There’s a site that will help you locate a dispensary near you.

What does my medical cannabis card get me at a CA dispensary?

• Eight ounces of dried marijuana.
• Six mature marijuana plants.
• 12 immature marijuana plants.

Where can you smoke?

In California, smoking marijuana is not permitted in the following areas:

• In a no smoking zone.
• Within 1,000 feet of a school or youth center.
• On school buses.
• In a motor vehicle, including a boat, while being operated.

Are patients are caregivers shielded from discrimination?

Yes. As a primary caregiver, you cannot apply for a Medical Marijuana Identification Card. The patient, the caregiver care for, is responsible for applying for a Medical Marijuana Identification Card. On the Application Form, there is a check box the patient must check if they are applying for both themselves and their caregiver. Both the patient and the caregiver need to be present in person at the county program office when the patient applies because both the patient and caregiver will be photographed for their individual Medical Marijuana Identification Card.

What is the future of the Medical Marijuana Program in CA?

The rules and regulations in California regarding medical cannabis are constantly being revised and updated. You can keep up with all of the changes related to medical cannabis rulemaking, rule changes and other updates regarding the Medical Marijuana Identification Card Program.

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With the state preparing to license medical marijuana shops in 2018, the Assembly sent Gov. Jerry Brown a bill Tuesday that would establish a tax amnesty program to help bring scofflawa into complaince with the law.

The measure would allow medical cannabis sellers to temporarily avoid a penalty of 25% to 50% on late taxes but would block the issuance of new state licenses to continuing violaters.

Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D-Carson), who introduced the bill, said many medical cannabis shops have not registered with the state and pain taxes for fear of criminal prosecution because marijuana remains an illegal substance under federal law.

“You have a lot of business that would like to come out of the shadpws and do the right thing,” Gipson said.

Voters legalized the medical use of marijuana in California two decades ago; the state has some 2,500 dispensaries.

A recent court decision said federal officials could not spend money to prosecute people who comply with state medical pot laws.

Getting businesses to comply with tax laws is also important because a measure on the November ballot in California would legalize the recreational use of marijuana, potentially resulting in many more businesses opening to sell cannabis.

But the main development that led to the amnesty proposal is a new regulatory scheme approved last year for the state to issue licenses to medical cannabis dispensaries starting in 2018.

“Now that California has officially taken steps to establish a regulatory framework for cannabis, we have an opportunity to engage these businesses to ensure they pay their dues,” Gibson told his colleagues, who approved the amnesty program on a 46-to-43 vote.

The state Board of Equalization,which collects taxes, estimated that 66% rate of non-payment of taxes based on the experience of other states, including Colorado, officials said.

The six-month amnesty period would run from July 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2017, and apply to tax liabilities due before Jan. 1, 2018.

Last year’s approval of a state regulatory system requiring pot shops to get state licenses may be enough to persuade businesses “that previously operated underground” to “comply with state tax and regulatory laws,” David J. Gau, executive director of the board, wrote to lawmakers.

Industry officials, including Nate Bradley, Executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association, welcomed the amnesty offer.

“Due to the lack of legal framework and access to basic banking, paying taxes has been extremely challenging for our medical cannabis industry,” Bradley said. “The tax amnesty program proposed in Assembly member Gipson’s bill will help existing medical cannabis operators more easily transition from operating in an unregulated, gray market to a regulated one.”

Brown was also sent a bill that allows state licenses to be issue to 135 of dispensaries authorized in Los Angeles when voters approved Measure D in 2013.

State law requires those applying for state licenses to have a license from the city, but the L.A. ballot measure did not provide a city license so special eligibility was needed through legislation, according to Assemblyman Reggie Jones Sawyer (D-Los Angeles).

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Chris Sayegh, a chef, is leading to way by taking haute cuisine to a higher place with his cannabis-infused menus in private homes for as much as$500 a head, or in “pop-up” banquets around Los Angeles for $20 to $200 a person. For now though, diners must show their medical marijuana cards.

Sayegh, 23 years old, who served in the kitchens of top restaurants in New York and California, said adding cannabis into his recipes creates an entirely new consciousness for diners that goes beyond the effects of a fine wine.

“To me, this is a cerebral experience,” he said during a demonstration at his Hollywood apartment last week. “You’re eating with a different perception with each bite, with each course. You’re literally changing your brain chemistry and you are viewing this food differently that you did 5 minutes ago, 10 minutes ago.”

Edible marijuana products are in fact, nothing new, but the market has evolved into a multimillion-dollar industry. Cannabis dining, on the other hand, is a relatively new concept, and Sayegh wants to bring it to the masses.

Marijuana has been legally permitted for medical purposed in California since 1996, and voters are widely expected to pass a measure on the upcoming November election ballot to legalize pot as a recreational drug for adults statewide.

Sayegh said he began experimenting with cannabis cuisine after growing tired of pot-baked brownies and other snacks.

“It really wasn’t until I started to break it down into science that I realized that cooking with cannabis … was much, much different than baking with it,” he said.

In the kitchen, Sayegh uses oil containing an extract of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) the psychoactive component of cannabis, and a “vaporizer” to infuse ingredients with TH.

“You’ll never taste the cannabis in my cooking unless I specifically want you to taste it because it’s not a pleasant taste … It throws off the whole flavor of the dish,” he said, adding that he “micro-doses” his dishes to the desired potency of individual clients.

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The actress and The View co-host said her products are targeting working women, offering relief for painful period-related cramps, something Goldberg has personally experienced over the years.
Goldbeg told USA Today, “I want to go nice and slow with this. I don’t want this to be a joke to people. It’s not a joke to women.”

Cannabis is still considered a Schedule I substance and it is federally illegal, so the products will only be available in California to people with their medical marijuana cards.

Goldberg, who is an outspoken marijuana advocate, said she created the product for women who experience painful cramps each month – including herself.

“This was all inspired by my own experience from a lifetime of difficult periods and the facts that cannabis was literally the only thing that gave me relief,” Goldberg said.

“The only products available to us were filled with ingredients we couldn’t even pronounce and I discovered that I was not alone in this. When I looked further, I learned that this are was considered a ‘niche’…a ‘niche’ that includes half of the population!” she said.

In order to distribute the marijuana creams and teas, Goldberg teamed up with fellow cannabis advocate Maya Elisabeth.

The “Whoopi & Maya” line will debut in April with four products including a “raw sipping chocolate” infused with CBD or THC, a tincture (liquid extract) for “serious discomfort,” a THC-infused bath soak, and a topical rub for localized pain.

The company, based in northern California, enters California’s medical cannabis industry in the final days of the so-called “Wild West” – twenty years of rapid unregulated growth, and is poised to proper in the modern era of professional regulation and mainstream success.

The passage of the California Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act this fall, set the tone for an emerging market that is expected to explode in growth of the course of the next several years.

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The initiative gained the support of Democratic Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform. Antonia Gonzales, who is the coalition board member and president of the Latino Voter League, said the coalition withdrew its rival initiative after Parker’s measure was modified to protect children, workers and small businesses.

The move ends weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations aimed at closing the gaps between the initiatives, amid concerns that neither would succeed if both of them wound up for the ballot for 2016.

Marijuana use is illegal under federal law in the United States but 23 states allow pot to be used for medical purposes. Colorado, Washington and Oregon have recently approved recreations use and Alaska is set to follow them next year.

Voters is Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and Arizona could face ballot initiatives next year for marijuana legalization.

In California, the amendments filed this week to Parker’s proposal would allow local governments a greater say in where marijuana can be sold, toughen protections for children, including a ban on marketing to minors and explicit warning labels on marijuana products, and require safety standards and enforcement of labor laws for people who live in the industry.

Proponents say that the measure would tax marijuana sales and cultivation, raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the state.

According thing the research group IBIS World, California has the largest market place for medical marijuana sales in the United States. The company says it is expected that recreational and medical marijuana sales will bring in $3.6 billion nationwide in 2015, growing to $13.4 billion over the next five years.

Public opinion is shifting in favor of marijuana legalization, after an initiative failed in California in 2010.

Parker’s measure would legalize recreational marijuana use for adults over 21 and set up a framework for regulating and taxing sales.

Campaign finance records do not show any contributions on Wednesday but Parker’s deep pockets suggest that his initiative will be well-funded.

In 2010 supporters invested $3.5 million in Proposition 19, outspending opponents nearly 8-1. But the measure failed amid concerns that it did not protect children or guard against driving under the influence.

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