Now that cannabis flower is legal and smokable, New Zealand doctors can prescribe the drug. Then why aren’t more people aware of it?
tense, restless, and a touch clammy. I have that feeling as I unlock my car, open the door, and then scan the area to check if anyone is looking. I just left a doctor’s office with a plastic cup with a child-resistant lid and a sealed tinfoil cover in my possession. It’s loaded with cannabis. My name, the medication’s ingredients, and the recommended dosage are all listed on the prescription letter.
I tear off the lid and close the car door. My nose picks up a painfully sweet aroma that reminds me of a hoppy beer, which quickly fills the car. 10 grams of dried Australian cannabis flower from the Solace brand has a 20% THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) content and is contained in the pot. A couple of huge, flowery cannabis buds weighing approximately ten grams are available for rolling and smoking, or vaping, if that’s what I want to do with them.
Before, the only place I could get marijuana was at a dilapidated house off Dominion Road, where I had to knock three times, pay $25, and then receive a thin tinfoil package. But compared to a typical tinny, this pottle contains a lot more marijuana (which the cost reflects). sufficient to give me a high. If I were to get pulled over, more than enough to have an unpleasant chat with a cop.
However, this marijuana wasn’t bought on the street. I went to see a doctor in Auckland on Thursday during my lunch break, and he prescribed it to me for pain relief and sleep issues.
Anyone who suffers from pain, anxiety, sleep disorders, or anything else a doctor deems treatable with the use of THC is now eligible to access weed in New Zealand, which is now verified for prescription use. This is not the CBD oil that has been available since 2017 or the THC drops that have been available since 2021, but rather smokable, dried cannabis flower.
The situation is real, yes. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve got a few inquiries.
Three years ago, Mark Hotu founded his Ponsonby office, Green Doctors. The GP had been looking into medicinal cannabis since he was sick of giving his patients addictive medicines to use, and he loved what he found. So, in 2018, after the Ministry of Health approved CBD oil, he launched his clinic. It started out slowly. He estimates that there were five patients per week. When THC drops were available in 2021, the number rose to about 70. “Cannabis’s reputation has really improved since then.”
Throughout the process, Cannabis Care and Cannabis Clinic in Auckland, as well as comparable operations in Northland and Canterbury, according to Hotu, have been “screaming out” for the verification of the use of cannabis flower on a prescription basis. The government’s rules have been extremely tight, claims Hotu. The 2020 referendum, in which Aotearoa barely rejected the legalization of recreational cannabis 51% to 49%, slowed down the process. “It’s been a three-year struggle.”
