Homeless in Arizona

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The homeless and medical marijuana????

I know a homeless, unemployed guy who got arrested for smoking a little marijuana in a Tempe park.

He tells me he is facing some prison time over it because he has some prior convictions. He said he is also a felon. He told me they were talking abut locking him up for 6 months in prison for the silly marijuana charge because of his prior record.

My suggestion to him was to get a medical marijuana card and that would make it legal for him to possess marijuana.

That' wouldn't allow him to smoke marijuana in public, but it probably would keep him from getting arrested for possession of it.

I told him if he had food stamps he could get an Arizona medical marijuana card for $75 rather then the full price of $150.

Of course that doesn't help much if you are unemployed and don't have the $75 for the Arizona medical marijuana card.

He also told me that since he is a felon he can't get food stamps. So of course he can't get the card for $75 and will have to pay the full price of $150.

And of course most of the doctors charge between $50 and $100 to for the exam it would cost him between $200 and $250 to get his medical marijuana card. That's $50 to $100 for the doctor and another $150 for the state of Arizona.

My next suggestion to him was to go to the Maricopa County Hospital and attempt to get a medical marijuana card from them. Give them the line that he doesn't have any money to get an exam from a private doctor and ask a doctor to write him a prescription for recommendation for medical marijuana.

Of course that was only wishful thinking. I suspect any hospital or medical clinic run by a government agency will refuse to help a sick person get a medical marijuana card, because the state of Arizona seems to hate marijuana.

My suggestion then was to go thru all the motions and attempt to get his medical marijuana card from a government hospital or medical place, even thought he almost certainly be refused.

And then go back and tell the courts something like:

I need medical marijuana to help me with my illness.

I can't get a medical marijuana card the way normal people do because I am homeless and unemployed and don't have a cent to my name.

Because of that I went to government hospitals and they refused to help me get a medical marijuana card.

Look guys I need my medical marijuana but I can't get a medical marijuana card, what can you do to help me so we can stop having the state of Arizona arrest me for using medical marijuana?

As many of us suspect Prop 203 was probably written to make the owners of medical marijuana dispensaries rich, and they could care less about poor people who can't afford to get a medical marijuana card.

A good question is what can be done to make medical marijuana available to poor people or homeless people who can't afford the outrageous cost of getting a medical marijuana card.

Or afford the outrageous $300 an ounce cost of medical marijuana.

About 15 years ago I got attacked by a pit bull that bit me in the leg, and broke my wrist. [That was the incident in which Marc Victors law firm owes me $3,000 for. They got $10,000 from the insurance company. They agreed to keep 20% of what they won, which would have been $2,000, but they kept $5,000 instead. I only got $5,000 and Marc Victor's law firm still owes me $3,000].

When I was in the hospital the doctors wrote me a prescription for some type of opiates and I didn't have to pay a ridiculous $150 fee for a "medical opiate card" like medical marijuana users have to. I just got a hand written prescription like you get for any other drug.

I don't remember the cost of the opiates, I got but I don't think it was more then $5 or $10. Which is reasonable compared to the $300 rip off price you have to pay for medical marijuana.

The thing I was shocked about was my penicillin cost $50, which I though was an outrageous price for penicillin. Usually you pay $5 or $10 for a penicillin prescription.

The pharmacist told me the penicillin was super expensive because dogs have a lot of nasty bacteria in their mouths and you need a special penicillin that can go ever where in your body to make sure the penicillin get all the bacteria.

Despite the penicillin costing $50, it was still dirt cheep compared to the rip off $300 and ounce the medical marijuana dispensaries charge.

I read something that the US Justice Department came up with a line that jailing homeless people for sleeping in public is a violation of the 8th Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment sections.

I wonder if the same logic could be applied to throwing a person in prison for using medical marijuana when the person can't afford the outrageous fees charged by the government for a medical marijuana card.

Would that be considered cruel and unusual punishment?

My main rant is that homeless and poor people should be able to use medical marijuana.

And of course as long as the state charges people the outrageous price of $75 or $150 to get a medical marijuana card that won't be possible.

And as long as government hospitals refuse to write medical marijuana prescriptions or recommendations, again that won't be possible.

And of course as long as the 85 or so medical marijuana dispensaries have a monopoly on selling medical marijuana at $300 and ounce we are never going to have affordable medical marijuana.