Medical Marijuana Recommendation Written verse Oral

Medical cannabis has been under siege ever since the passing of proposition 215. Law enforcement are and always have been the biggest opponents of the law. I can't count the number of times that clients have told me that when they provided a medical cannabis recommendation to an officer he has said "I don't care about that, I'm still gonna arrest you."

Law enforcement as an institution have historically been indoctrinated with the belief that Marijuana is an illegal drug. It continues to be an institutional bias that affects the average street cop.

So what changed? Well, one day the voters of California transformed Marijuana from an illegal drug, into a legal drug for those patients in which it provides medical relief.

So the question is what proof of a medical recommendation is required? The answer may surprise you. None!

An oral recommendation from your physician is just as valid as a written recommendation. If you discuss medical cannabis with your physician and he recommends it for you then that is all you need. You don't need any form signed. It doesn't have to be in writing. It doesn't even have to be documented in your medical file. As long as he will back up his oral recommendation in the future by simply stating yes, I remember talking to him about medical cannabis and I approved it for his medical condition. That is all that is required.

You may find this clear statement of law in Health and Safety code section 11362.5(d) which states that a physician's recommendation may be "written or oral". So why do we see so many of those recommendation forms, and who are they for?

The medical recommendation forms are for two purposes. First, if you want to belong to cannabis club or obtain your medical cannabis from a club you will be required to prove you are a lawful medical cannabis user with this written recommendation. The second purpose for a written medical cannabis recommendation is you may attempt to prevent from getting arrested if an officer confronts you for possessing medical cannabis. However, based on the large amounts of arrests for medical cannabis by officers in the face of a medical recommendation don't count on it!

Registration for Medical Marijuana

A frequently asked question I receive is does a person have to register with the county to lawfully use medical marijuana?

A person can get a physician's recommendation without registering with the county. The Physician's Recommendation has all the protections of getting a county-issued medical marijuana card, except for one. The one is that the police are not suppose to arrest a patient that produces a county-authorized card.

The California Law that covers it is health and safety code section 11362.71(e) and it states:

(e) No person or designated primary caregiver in possession of a valid identification card shall be subject to arrest for possession, transportation, delivery, or cultivation of medical marijuana in an amount established pursuant to this article, unless there is reasonable cause to believe that the information contained in the card is false or falsified, the card has been obtained by means of fraud, or the person is otherwise in violation of the provisions of this article.

Health and Safety code 11362.71 (f) states:

It shall not be necessary for a person to obtain an identification card in order to claim the protections of Section 11362.5.

New Medical Marijuana Blog

Welcome to the new Medical Marijuana blog operated by the Tieman Law Firm's Medical Marijuana Site. We are in the process of compiling information for our blog, so be sure to come visit in the coming days.