requirements to get a medical marijuana card in california

Charlie Baker’s office announced Monday that Kimberly Roy has been appointed to the Cannabis Control Commission. Serving as the governor’s appointee, Roy will oversee both the adult-use and medical marijuana industries. Since 20211, Roy has served as director of external affairs for the Worcester County Sheriff’s Department, where she’s focused on the Face2Face program, a substance misuse prevention and education program serving more than 375,000 local students. Kim Roy’s work in prevention and education programming to help students understand the impacts of drug and alcohol addiction will serve her well as a member of the Cannabis Control Commission,” said Baker. With a decade of service to the people of Central Massachusetts in a leadership role at the Worcester County Sheriff’s Department, Kim will bring a commitment to public service that will benefit the work of the Commission. The Cannabis Control Commission, which was signed into legislation by Gov. Baker in July 2017, administers the laws surrounding medical and adult use of marijuana in the state. The commission consists of one appointee each from the governor, treasurer and attorney general, and two members to be agreed upon by the majority of those three constitutional officers. I am honored by the Governor’s appointment and grateful for the opportunity to serve the people of the Commonwealth in this new capacity as a member of the Cannabis Control Commission,” said Roy. I look forward to bringing my insights and experience from working in substance use education and prevention programming to make positive contributions to the work of the Commission. Roy previously worked as a hospital representative for Johnson & Johnson.

This will be broader than injury. How emotionally facilitative is the employer, the work, and the environment pre-injury? How do we feel we are treated by the employment situation? If we are satisfied, motivated, valued, that will likely drive our return to work following an injury. If we are a commodity, a "cog in the wheel," a nameless and unthanked component, we are likely less motivated to return and contribute. The human spirit itself is at work in these emotions and feelings. And, employers can affect this, both before and after an injury or illness. Is the employer engaged and communicative or withdrawn and sullen? Is the return-to-work program real, productive, and compassionate? Are perceptions and reality of the workplace discussed and collaborative? In essences, are the employers and their agents interested in the people and their contribution, or merely in the production (the "bottom line")? From this recent analysis and focus, we see advocacy models. We see partnerships in which insurers and employers are collaborating to effectuate deployment of medical resources early, facilitating of return to work, and engagement of workers.

That process will continue to evolved. It is long since time that this process leverage technology to build communication and engage the worker. There is a profound sense produced by work absence and isolation. Employers can and should engage in the recovery process, communicate with workers, and make them part of the return-to-work team. Medical marijuana will be a challenge. There are a great many who react even to the phrase. They contend that if it is medicinal, it is cannabis, not marijuana. Proponents proclaim the efficacy and safety of this substance. One lawyer has even sued to force a state to allow patients to smoke marijuana. The same legal system that has (and is) held tobacco producers liable for promoting smoking is revolting against state regulators that preclude smoking of marijuana. If smoking is unhealthy, damaging, how can smoking one substance be safer or better than another? As the market considers marijuana, which many see as an eventuality or reality of treatment, the proponents are loud.

They espouse that this is a non-addictive, natural, and harmless treatment. They urge the market to acceptance. But, there is a population whose only experience with it are the Jeff Spicolis that they knew in high school. Whether the marijuana made them dull or whether the dull used the marijuana, the collective perception is real. There are also those for whom the opioid crisis is too recent. They recall being "duped" by the experts. The promises of the panacea of opioids seemed too good to be true, and in the end it was. There are those who feel there is today not enough real research on the potential downsides of marijuana/cannabis. They fear that the "truth" may include burdens that will not become apparent for decades and that the scourge of the the 2030s could be the mistakes made in too rapidly accepting marijuana hype and promise today. But today, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug. The federal government has determined it has "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." Despite that, we have seen little willingness of the federal government to enforce laws.

There are those who see this as part of a larger evolution through which America ceases to be a nation of laws. States openly defy federal law on marijuana and immigration. We now see municipalities and political subdivisions electing to similarly defy state law. The result is a patchwork of perceptions, laws, and practices that make predictability and transparency elusive. Remembering the discussion above of psycho-social issues post-accident, employers will increasingly have to focus on emotional engagement and well-being even before work injury. The workplace consumes the predominant portion of our time each week. There are increasingly publicized issues with interpersonal relationships, bullying, discrimination, and more. Employers will have to grasp that the work environment is critical to the engagement and perception of those who work there. Perceptions and conclusions of employees will influence their satisfaction and participation. That will affect bottom-line in the near term, and the culture that is created will impact return to work and engagement post-injury.