FAQs - Louisiana Medical Marijuana Card

There is no state-specific application that you should submit – your physician’s recommendation serves as your access card. You should be residing in Louisiana; you need to have a recommendation from a certified marijuana doctor in Louisiana, and you need to be above 18 years old. Minor patients can also use medical marijuana if their parents and a specialist doctor support them.

According to Louisiana Act 286 (2020), any physician licensed and in good standing with the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners can certify a patient with any debilitating medical condition. This applies to any disease that the physician considers debilitating to the patient, regardless of whether the condition is included in the defined list. These include cancer, chronic pain, PTSD, epilepsy, autism, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, and glaucoma.

Anxiety disorder can qualify under certain conditions. Since 2020, any condition that the physician determines to be debilitating to an individual patient can qualify. You do not necessarily need to have a condition from a predefined list. This criterion provides a lot of freedom for physicians since it allows them to make their decisions. Provided that your physician considers your anxiety to be debilitating and that it requires medical marijuana to improve, they can provide the recommendation.

There is no Louisiana Medical Marijuana Card, nor is there any mandatory fee charged for getting a recommendation. The physician can charge for providing you with the certification, and that varies based on the doctor. Qualifying patients in Louisiana spend, on average, $200 on consultations with licensed physicians.

House Bill 696 allows qualified patients of medicinal cannabis to get physicians’ recommendations via a telemedicine service. One can make an appointment with the licensed physician providing medical marijuana in Louisiana, receive a recommendation, and enter into the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy Cannabis Registry if qualified, without leaving home.

No. There is no such thing as a medical marijuana card, either physical or electronic, in Louisiana. All that your health care provider does is fax your recommendation to your chosen pharmacy to process it. Processing time differs by pharmacies and can vary from several hours to several days. Your doctor’s certification is your official identification, and the only thing that you have to provide at the pharmacy is a valid photo identification issued by the government.

After a patient is determined to be eligible for medical cannabis use, his/her physician sends the recommendation to his/her preferred medicinal cannabis pharmacy. Patient has the possibility to obtain a copy of his/her physician recommendation. Some pharmacies can process the patient within several hours, while others may require up to 5 days. Most patients can start buying cannabis within 24–72 hours after the appointment.

The recommendations will have an expiration date of no more than 12 months from the date they are issued. This means that your recommendation expires after one year, and you’ll have to book another examination with a licensed Louisiana doctor if you wish to continue using marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The process of obtaining a Louisiana Medical Cannabis recommendation is basically the same as the initial one – you have to visit a doctor and get a new recommendation. Then he or she enters your information into the state registry and sends it to your selected dispensary. There is no need to visit the same doctor, since all doctors in Louisiana can issue such recommendations.

Indeed. The people of Louisiana can do their medical cannabis evaluation from the comfort of their home by using telemedicine services and get in touch with a physician who is registered in their state. This process for renewing the recommendation is the same as the one used when doing an initial assessment.

Once your recommendation expires, you are no longer authorized to purchase medical cannabis from state-licensed retailers. Since recreational marijuana remains entirely illegal in Louisiana, there is no alternative legal pathway. You must schedule a new physician evaluation to receive an updated recommendation before regaining legal access to dispensaries.

Minors under 18 can qualify for a Louisiana medical marijuana certification with consent from a parent or legal guardian who will serve as their caregiver. For minors with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the certifying provider must consult with the patient’s pediatric sub-specialist before issuing the recommendation.

Louisiana does not require state registration for patients and caregivers. Parents and guardians who are primary caregivers can contact the patient’s pharmacy directly to ensure the patient’s recommendation is processed correctly. Caregivers of minor patients serve as the point of contact for all dispensary transactions, purchasing and administering medical cannabis on the minor’s behalf.

Under Act 439, a visiting qualifying patient may obtain medical marijuana from a Louisiana pharmacy upon producing evidence of their valid medical marijuana registry identification card, or its equivalent, issued under the medical marijuana laws of another U.S. state. This law also provides immunity from prosecution for qualified visiting patients and caregivers, as long as they adhere to Louisiana’s medical marijuana regulations.

Retail permits remain limited to 10 sites with two possible satellite locations each. Retailers may only sell marijuana products manufactured by firms licensed in Louisiana. There are two licensed medical marijuana manufacturers in the state – Advanced Biomedics LLC dba Ilera Holistic Healthcare and Good Day Farm Louisiana LLC. Each batch of product is tested for purity before being transported to licensed retailers for distribution.

People who have a medical marijuana certification can get medicinal cannabis in various forms, including tinctures, concentrates, extracts, oils, creams, lotions, inhalers, edibles, sprays, capsules, pills, liquid oral cannabis medications, transdermal patches, suppositories, and cannabis flowers. The form of smokable cannabis is provided to people who are above 21 years old, except when the recommending physician states so. Medical marijuana vaping is also illegal.

Medical marijuana cardholders from Louisiana can obtain 2.5 ounces of marijuana every 14 days. Your doctor determines the maximum amount you will be able to carry for 30 days, while the dispensary can only give you a maximum of 2.5 ounces (71 grams) of raw flower for 14 days. However, your certifying physician can also change your maximum supply if he thinks that your allowance is too little.

It all depends on the state you are going to visit. Patients from Louisiana can visit Arkansas or Oklahoma to purchase from dispensaries in these states since both states require you to fill out visiting patient forms before making any purchase. Other states that offer reciprocal programs include Nevada, Maine, and New Jersey.

A prescription from a doctor is required for purchasing medical marijuana at authorized dispensaries, while the recreational use of marijuana is illegal in Louisiana. The prescription makes it legal to buy lab-tested marijuana products, to avoid arrest, to obtain a variety of product formats such as flower, and to obtain a treatment plan based on a doctor’s instructions. It should be emphasized that the recreational use of marijuana is illegal in Louisiana; only certified medical users have the right to obtain it legally.