Hello again everyone!

Today I will be writing about what I should have probably made my first blog post about. Due to the way things ended up playing out, my dispensary trip was a decent first blog post. Next up I will be going over the process for how someone can become certified by a physician to obtain medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, and how to obtain an ID card to visit a dispensary. The process can be very complicated and confusing, and this is actually something that I had issues with myself. Well, let’s dive right in!

Step 1: Register For The Medical Marijuana Program

So, you’re thinking about looking into medical marijuana now that it is legal in Pennsylvania. Cool! You’ll be joining approximately 21,000 other Pennsylvania residents who have already registered for this program. Currently, there are 17 approved conditions that are on the list of what can qualify someone for medical marijuana. Those 17 conditions are

ALS

Autism

Cancer

Crohn’s Disease

Damage to nervous tissue of spinal cord

Epilepsy

Glaucoma

HIV/ AIDS

Huntington’s Disease

Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome

Intractable Seizures

Multiple Sclerosis

Neuropathies

Parkinson’s Disease

PTSD

Severe chronic or intractable pain in which conventional therapy is ineffective

Sickle Cell Anemia

If a condition you suffer from falls on this list, than you can get started on registering! First, click here to be taken to the Department of Health’s Medical Marijuana sign up page. I posted an image below as to what the the main page should look like.

The black area that is circled is where you will want to click to get started. Keep in mind, this sign up option is only for those who are of age and will be obtaining medical marijuana on their own. If you will be a caregiver for someone else, than just select caregiver registration and follow the same steps. For the sake of this post, though, I will be explaining it as if you are doing it for yourself. So, after clicking on the circled area, you should be brought to this screen:

Simply fill in all areas that have the red asterisk next to them. You must have a valid PA driver’s license or PennDot issued card to complete this process. This is where it gets tricky (for me it did at least). Enter all driver license information EXACTLY how it appears on your license. Do not use spaces between the license/ card number, type in all caps, and do not use any punctuation in your address (ex. if your license says 800 LINCOLN ST, enter it as is and do not spell out “street”). Once you have completed this, you will be able to sign into your patient profile. After you make sure that you can do that, it will be time for the next step.

Step 2: Obtain Physician Certification

Moving right along there, look at you being time efficient! Well, since you already have officially signed up for the Medical Marijuana Program, it is now time to look for a physician. The reasoning for this is so that someone can actually validate, or re-validate, that a diagnoses you have is one of the 17 currently approved in the state. I have a link to the full current list of certified physicians in the commonwealth right here. The rest is up to you as far as what physician you would like to go to. I had my GI doctor fax over all my patient history to certified physician I chose, which is for sure something I would suggest everyone to do.

I will also recommend to “shop around” because not all physicians charge the same amount for a certification visit. I was charged $95 for my certification visit (they tried to change it to $225 the day before my appointment) and that was out of pocket and before I was even seen by the doctor that day. Yes, you will have to pay for the visit and it will be out of pocket unfortunately as insurance does not cover it. The visit for me was extremely smooth and painless, though. The hardest part is just being open and honest with the doctor. Cannabis still has a very negative stigma attached to it, and that usually makes it hard to talk about with people (especially because it is still illegal federally and in most states). I talked with the doctor for about 15 or so minutes, and that was it. He just went over my patient history, and signed off on his recommendation. If the physician approves you, then he or she has to certify you online (which does not take long at all) and then you are ready to continue your registration process.

Step 3: Pay For Medical Marijuana ID Card

Almost there, don’t give up yet! So far you have registered as a patient in the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program, obtained a physicians certification that you have one or more of the 17 currently approved conditions, and now you need to submit payment so you can receive your identification card. To do this, return to the Medical Marijuana Program log in page and sign in with your username and password. Once there and logged in, your page should look like this:

You will want to select the “Make Payment” tab on the top right of the menu bar (it is circled in black in the image above). Here it will have you enter a credit or debit card to bill your card payment to. It currently costs $50 for a medical marijuana ID card. The whole process can definitely be expensive, but you have to “pay to play” unfortunately. There are options there that can offer you discounts on a card depending if you qualify, and I have seen on Facebook and Reddit that some only had to pay $25. Definitely something to look into, but I know I did not qualify for any breaks. It says it can take up to 3 weeks to receive your card in the mail, but mine only took about a week and a half or so.

Step 4: Visit A Dispensary!

The day has finally come! Your golden ticket has arrived, and you now are a full and complete patient in the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program! Congratulations!

You are now free and clear to schedule your first visit to a dispensary. The only catch is you must wait to go to a dispensary after your card issue date (which can be seen in the image above). You do not have to schedule an appointment for your first time going to a dispensary, but I would recommend it. That way you could meet with an onsite pharmacist who could better help direct you to what would benefit you. For any other information or questions that I may not have answered, click here to be taken to the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program homepage.

Thank you so much everyone for reading, and please feel free to leave comments regarding any facet of my current blog posts, or just even this one directly. Let me know what you as a reader would like to see! I hope this helps clear up a lot of confusion for people, and allows you to get started on the track to obtaining your own legal medicine!

-Jeff