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New Hampshire is now issuing identification cards for every eligible person
Linda Horan, a cancer patient, becomes the first person to buy medical marijuana in New Hampshire after she sued the state.
The law regulating medical marijuana in New Hampshire was passed two years ago but until now none of the four approved dispensaries has opened its doors to serve those in need. Horan had to go to court in order to become certified to buy marijuana in Maine.
The dispensaries in New Hampshire are expected to open during the next year but the woman, who has terminal lung cancer, says she will probably be dead by then. This is why she decided to sue the state and get an identification card with which she could buy medical marijuana in Maine.
Maine has eight dispensaries and more than 2,000 caregivers authorized to sell marijuana for medical purposes.
A judge ordered the state to process the woman’s application and to issue her the needed identification card despite the state lawyers’ concerns that it would undermine the authority of the state which needs to be able to control the distribution of marijuana products.
After Horan has won the trial the General Attorney Joseph Foster advised the state’s Department of Health to issue medical marijuana identification cards to all eligible patients. In only a few days the department received over 70 applications.
Maine’s law of medical marijuana stipulates that patients from other state may buy medical marijuana in Maine if they have an identification card recognizing them as eligible patients in their home state.
Horan’s lung cancer has been diagnosed in July and has spread really fast to her lymph nodes and to her brain. Doctors think that marijuana could reduce nausea and replace opioid pain relievers at least for a while. The woman also hopes that marijuana will stimulate her appetite since she came to weigh 90 pounds and also ease her anxiety.
The woman bought marijuana for the first time at a dispensary in Maine on Friday. She chose more types of marijuana to smoke, mint and lemon chocolate cookies to eat, cannabis pills and also a marijuana tincture which can be added to food or put under the tongue.
The 64-year old women declared that she feels like a child in a candy store while she was choosing her drugs on Friday.
Image source: pixabay
