Now that I don’t have insurance that is accepted by my family physician, I have to pay out of pocket several times a year to keep him from dropping me from his patient list.
Since he prescribes my mental health medication, I don’t have a choice unless I want to pay even more to see a psychiatrist for the same drugs.
Worst of all, I don’t think a psychiatrist would accept my current medication regimen because they often want to see their patients on whatever drugs they prefer as physicians. My sister’s psychiatrist is constantly wanting to change her medications if they don’t immediately start working within the first month of using them. Since my family physician is happy to prescribe me the same medications that work and have worked for years, I will pay whatever he charges to stay his patient. My cannabis doctor is similar—he’s not the cheapest option in town, but he has been the most reliable marijuana physician that I have dealt with thus far. Some of them try to limit the THC on your inhalation recommendation for instance. This isn’t set by the state, and I’ve seen the numbers vary depending on which doctor a patient is seeing. If I wanted to go crazy with cannabis concentrates and start vaping a gram every day or two, I would need thousands of milligrams more on my medical marijuana recommendation compared to another patient. My doctor is more than happy to make this increase if I ask him, but that isn’t necessary. I suppose a different person who needs this much THC can benefit from these options if they’re smart and find a good marijuana doctor like I did.