Journal of psychoactive drugs
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J Psychoactive Drugs · Apr 2013
From 32 ounces to zero: a medical geographic study of dispensing a cultivated batch of "plum" cannabis flowers to medical marijuana patients in Washington State.
The medicinal use of cannabis is a growing phenomenon in the U. S. predicated on the success of overcoming specific spatial challenges and establishing particular human-environment relationships. This article takes a medical geographic "snapshot" of an urban site in Washington State where qualifying chronically ill and debilitated patients are delivered locally produced botanical cannabis for medical use. ⋯ A convenience sample of 37 qualifying patients delivered this batch of cannabis botanical medicine was recruited and prospectively studied with survey instruments. Results provide insight into patients' self-rated health, human-plant relationships, and travel-to-clinic distances. An overall systematic geographic understanding of the medical cannabis delivery system gives a grounded understanding of the lengths that patients and care providers go, despite multiple hurdles, to receive and deliver treatment with botanical cannabis that relieves diverse symptoms and improves health-related quality-of-life.