Recreational vs. Medical Marijuana: What is the difference?
The cannabis marketplace has grown phenomenally in the last decade to the point of having distinct markets between recreational marijuana and medical marijuana, and there are differences! Distinguishing these differences can empower consumers to make decisions about whether they need to buy recreational or medical cannabis based on their own needs.
Legal Status and Access
Medical marijuana operates (mostly) under strict regulatory frameworks that include physician recommendations and patient registration. Medical patients have to show evidence of meeting specific conditions – chronic pain, epilepsy, cancer, PTSD – in order to be granted access to a dispensary.
Recreational marijuana programs are intended for adult consumers to acquire cannabis for enjoyment and do not require any medical justification.
Quality Standards in Products
Medical marijuana cultivation practices are more focused on creating plants that maximize therapeutic compounds, than the recreational qualities of the strain. Medical cannabis cultivators focus on cannabinoid ratios, terpenes, and effects that are predictable/consistent, rather than growing the strain with the highest possible THC value, or most visually appealing buds.
Recreational marijuana is primarily focused on what adult consumers want – flavor, smell and psychoactive effects. There are usually some quality standards that will apply to recreational marijuana, but not the same regulated /punitive precision and consistency standards, documented above, that are applied to medical regulations.
Dosing and Consumption
Medical marijuana and the consumption of medical marijuana are centered around specific dosing and controlled consumption. Patients interact with their healthcare giver to determine the optimal combination of cannabis products, cannabinoid ratios and dosing arrival schedule, to treat their symptoms. Generally, a gift card of prescription and it can be expected that the products are labelled with a standardized measurement.
Since the primary delivery methods for medical marijuana are tinctures, capsules, and measured dose edibles provide patients with measurable, controllable effects that they need for therapeutic applications, patients can know how much they are taking, and can allow the varying dosages deliver a steady state of cannabinoids throughout the day.
Recreational marijuana products allow for quite a variety of consuming experiences, and the delivery method is not limited by health metrics/accuracy. Adult consumers can select flower products, concentrates and infused products for the purpose of consumption, and not necessarily for a medical impact.
Pricing and Taxation
For industries, medical marijuana, by definition, is a legitimate medicine, and typically tied to lower tax rates. This has made the pricing of treatment for patients a significant difference compared to recreational use.
Recreational marijuana is taxed higher with excise taxes, sales taxes and the legal incorporation of a special cannabis tax, all of which are presented in the purchase.
Possible Future Trends
If it is possible to argue cannabis is a legitimate medicine, we should recognize the dividing lines of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana remain blurry because common everyday use in life continues to evolve and market cannabis products based on ever-theoretical, new understanding of the therapeutic potential of cannabis.
This suggests that, as this evolution continues, both markets continue to grow toward an understanding of integrating all of it, medical-grade cannabis products providing options for therapeutic users alongside recreational options for adult consumers and satisfying thoughtful need-based delivery models of cannabis-based systems for the cannabis community.