Cannabis therapies in Utah are available through our licensed pharmacies. As you know, you need a valid medical cannabis card to visit Beehive Farmacy and buy your medications. What you might not know is that your medications need to change over time.
One of the things our staff pharmacist does is consult with prescription marijuana patients about how they are responding to treatment. Regular evaluations are a good idea for the simple fact that things change. Your symptoms may not always be the same. Moreover, you may find that different forms of medical cannabis help you better than others. Our bodies seem to respond best when we use different products and dosage forms.
Medical Cannabis for Chronic Pain
The majority of patients who use medical cannabis list chronic pain as their primary qualifying condition. Chronic pain is a curious thing. So many underlying conditions can cause it. That says nothing of what the medical community refers to as non-specific pain.
Pain is also difficult to peg because patients experience it in different ways. Your pain tolerance is likely different from many of the other patients we see. Maybe you have a low tolerance for pain; perhaps your pain tolerance is rather high. Either way, different medical cannabis products are going to influence your perceptions of pain.
Those perceptions are likely to change over time. Hopefully, you will be one of those patients whose condition stabilizes after a year or more using medical marijuana. If that’s the case, you might find you need different dosages or delivery methods to continue managing your pain effectively. All of this is completely normal.
Follow-Up Visits Are Required
The fact that your medical cannabis needs may change is the very reason follow-up visits with your QMP are required by Utaj law. How frequently do you have to follow up? That depends on your circumstances. Your initial medical cannabis card is only valid for 90 days. That initial period is the same for all patients.
In order to renew your initial card, you need to have a follow-up visit with you QMP. Your card can then be renewed for six months, as long as your QMP is confident you still qualify. You may start the renewal process within 30 days of your card’s expiration date.
One-Year Renewals
State law allows medical cannabis cards to be renewed for one year under certain circumstances. In order to obtain a one-year renewal, you need to have been using medical cannabis for at least 12 months. Your QMP must also verify that your condition has been stabilized and that medical cannabis is still an appropriate treatment. If all of those things apply, your QMP can approve a one-year renewal.
Regardless of your current renewal period, a valid medical cannabis card lets you visit any of the cannabis pharmacies in Utah. All legal dispensaries are licensed by the state and must adhere to a strict set of standards. Those standards include having a licensed pharmacist on staff during operating hours and testing for product safety.
We invite you to consult with our pharmacist whenever you visit our Salt Lake City or Brigham City locations. Our pharmacist is available to offer advice, answer questions, and generally guide you on your medical cannabis journey. Between our pharmacist and your QMP, the three of you can determine how to best utilize medical marijuana to best manage your symptoms.
Just don’t be surprised if your management needs change over time. It is quite possible you’ll be buying different medications a year or two from now. You may even be adjusting your dosage. It is all part of medicating with cannabis.
