Patients in the over 3-dozen states with legal medical cannabis must obtain some form of medical cannabis card in order to purchase and use cannabis medicines. As such, the medical cannabis card is routine for patients. But could that change with the recent signing of an executive order to reschedule cannabis?
Moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is unlikely to have an immediate impact on patients and their cards. But over the long term, perhaps 5-10 years down the road, one of the ultimate impacts of rescheduling could be complete elimination of the medical cannabis card. Let us break it down.
Why Cards Are Currently Necessary
BeehiveMed is a Utah organization that helps patients obtain their medical cannabis cards. They explain that the cards are currently necessary because doctors cannot write prescriptions for medical cannabis. Under federal law, doing so would be a violation of the CSA. The best they can do is make a recommendation. Any such recommendation is necessary to get a medical cannabis card.
The card acts as a license to purchase, possess, and use cannabis medicinally. It is very similar to a driver’s license. In Utah, only medical cannabis is allowed. And only patients with valid cards can use it legally.
Once rescheduling takes place, it is theoretically possible that a doctor could write a cannabis prescription. What federal guidelines for doing so would have to be developed first. In addition, doctors would need access to FDA-approved drugs they could actually prescribe to patients.
Big Pharma’s Response Will Make the Difference
It is entirely possible that the medical cannabis community will see no changes to the standard medical cannabis card as a result of rescheduling. It really depends on how big pharma responds. Remember that in order to write prescriptions, doctors need access to federally approved drugs. But who will develop those drugs?
The pharmaceutical industry may see rescheduling as a good thing for them. It might prompt them to begin researching and developing new drugs from cannabis and its components. If that is the way this goes, we’ll eventually see new cannabis-derived drugs on the market. At that point, the prescription pad would almost certainly replace the medical cannabis card.
On the other hand, it might turn out that big pharma has no interest in developing cannabis drugs. Things playing out that way would dictate the continued use of the medical cannabis card coupled with a doctor’s recommendations.
The Plant vs. an Approved Medication
What this boils down to is using the cannabis plant or switching to an approved medicine. As things currently stand, the medical cannabis community is limited to plant consumption. Medical cannabis comes in the form of raw flower, cannabis vapes and concentrates, edibles, and so forth. All the non-plant products are derived from the cannabinoids and terpenes extracted from plant material.
An approved medication is an entirely different ballgame. It is a medication derived from cannabis and put through years of rigorous testing to demonstrate both efficacy and safety. Any drugs developed in this way would still be considered Schedule III substances subject to federal oversight. As a result, doctors would need to write prescriptions rather than simply making recommendations.
Still a Long Way Off
Cannabis rescheduling bringing an end to the medical cannabis card is still a long way off – if it happens an all. But it becomes a real possibility once the rescheduling process is complete. Perhaps a decade from now, patients will be getting cannabis prescriptions rather than state-issued medical cannabis cards.