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metalpeter’s journal

Legal Marijuna

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First of all I don't have any for your pain condition sorry. The article below is about a new way to buy weed, of course the medical kind. In LA you can get it from a vending machine. I think it is a great idea and it sounds really secure so that is cool. I still find it odd that a state like CA can say it is legal for medical Marijuna but that the Feds say it is illegal so that is kinda a legal mess it seems like to me. I don't know if the states who made it legal should be right or if the feds should have the power to overturn them. I know there is that balance of powers thing I have to admit I'm kinda pulling for the states myself.

Vending machines dispense pot in LA

By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer Wed Jan 30, 8:47 AM ET

LOS ANGELES - The city that popularized the fast food drive-thru has a new innovation: 24-hour medical marijuana vending machines.


Patients suffering from chronic pain, loss of appetite and other ailments that marijuana is said to alleviate can get their pot with a dose of convenience at the Herbal Nutrition Center, where a large machine will dole out the drug around the clock.

"Convenient access, lower prices, safety, anonymity," inventor and owner Vincent Mehdizadeh said, extolling the benefits of the machine.

But federal drug agents say the invention may need unplugging.

"Somebody owns (it), it's on a property and somebody fills it," said DEA Special Agent Jose Martinez. "Once we find out where it's at, we'll look into it and see if they're violating laws."

At least three dispensaries in the city, including two belonging to Mehdizadeh, have installed vending machines to distribute the drug to people who carry cards authorizing marijuana use.

Mehdizadeh said he spent seven months to develop and patent the black, armored box, which he calls the "PVM," or prescription vending machine.

A sliding fence protects the tinted windows of his dispensary, barely distinguishing it from a busy thoroughfare of strip malls, automobile dealers and furniture shops. A box resembling a large refrigerator stands inside the nearly empty shop, near a few shelves stocked with vitamins and herbs.

A guard in a black T-shirt emblazoned with the word "Security" on the front stands at the door. A poster of Bob Marley decorates a back room.

The computerized machine requires fingerprint identification and a prepaid card with a magnetic stripe. Once the card and fingerprint are verified, a bright green envelope with the pot drops down a slot.

Mehdizadeh says any user approved for medical marijuana and registered in a computer database at his dispensaries can pre-purchase the drug and then use the machine to pick up.

The process provides convenience and privacy for users who may otherwise feel uncomfortable about buying marijuana, Mehdizadeh said.

At the Timothy Leary Medical Dispensary in the San Fernando Valley, the vending machine is accessible only during business hours. An employee there said the machine was introduced about five months ago, and provides speedy service.

"It helps a lot of patients who are in a lot of pain and don't want to wait around to get help," Robert Schwartz said. "It's been working out great."

Mehdizadeh said he sought the advice of doctors, and decided to limit the amount of marijuana per user to an ounce per week. Each purchase from the machine yields 1/8th or 2/8th of an ounce. By eliminating a vendor behind the counter, he said, the machine offers users lower drug prices. The 1/8th ounce packet would cost about $40 - $20 lower than the average price at other dispensaries.

A spokesman for a marijuana advocacy group said the machine also benefits dispensary owners.

"It limits the number of workers in the store in the event of a raid, and it'll make it harder for theft," said Nathan Sands, of The Compassionate Coalition.

Marijuana use is illegal under federal law, which does not recognize the medical marijuana laws in California and 11 other states.

The Drug Enforcement Agency and other federal agencies have been actively shutting down major medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the state over the last two years and charging their operators with felony distribution charges.

Mehdizadeh said the Herbal Nutrition Center was the target of a federal raid in December. He said no arrests were made and no charges have been filed against him.

Kris Hermes, a spokesman for advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, said the machine might benefit those who already know how much and what strain of marijuana they're looking for. But he said others will want to see and smell the drug before they buy it.

A man who said he has been authorized to use medical marijuana as part of his anger management therapy said the vending machine's security measures would at least protect against illicit use of the drug.

"You have kids that want to get high and that's not what marijuana is for," Robert Miko said. "It's to medicate."


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💬 3 comments

  1. jenks ·

    i'm all for legalizing pot, but I just love some of these people's "diagnoses". pot for anger management? not that I have a problem with it- just seems like a bit of a stretch.

    seems to me that if it's really just "medicine" you wouldn't need to "see and smell" the weed before getting it, or be really specific as to what strain you're getting.

    did anyone see the episode of entourage where drama was trying to figure out a diagnosis that wasn't too embarrassing that would get him some weed? He ended up going with anxiety.

  2. metalpeter ·

    I saw that episode and it was really funny. If I remember in the end He and everyone on the movie or was it a show where all getting high on his stuff.

    I would agree that anger management is a bit of a reach. I would think you would have to take come classes or learn some coping skills first. Because if you didn't and you ran out of pot you would not get angry right away but once the pot whore off you would. But often in this country of ours we fix the outside or the symptoms instead of the cause so I could so see doctors giving out scripts for anger instead of trying to fix the problem the right way first.

    Not really sure about the seeing and smelling of the weed part really. But I do think that with some stuff there is placeblo effect or as one who believes in "eastern thought" might say It is a mind over matter thing. I think that part of drugs effectiveness (and non effectiveness) is in the mind. I really do think that it can have some effect. I also think that the smell might be able to trigger something. Kinda like when I walk past KFC and I smell the biscuits and Chicken I then have no desire to eat there because I now have the taste in my mouth so it is like I ate it. I know at concerts I love the smell of weed, but the times I have tried it, it didn't really do anything for me. But maybe that was because I wasn't in a bad mood and ready to kill someone.

  3. jason ·

    I would be an A+ candidate for a medical marijuana card. Of course, the federales would rather people suffer or die instead of receive relief that works for them, because of some laughable moral objection. Patients first, my ass. More like Big Pharm first.

    Personally, like with anything else, medicine included, I am interested in what I am putting into my body. If you are paying X dollars, you want to make sure you are getting your money's worth and not getting the shittiest, cheapest stuff possible that gives you headaches, doesn't last, or doesn't work. That would make their industry more like Big Pharm.

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