Medical marijuana shops line Chester Avenue in Oildale and the east side of Bakersfield. We met patients who use marijuana for serious illnesses like cancer and seizures, but those who need it most admit there are others who may be abusing the medicine.
"The doctor told me that I had five years to live," cancer patient Shann Parker, said. "They told me that angiosarcoma was a very rare cancer."
Angiosarcoma is a cancer of the veins, vessels and arteries that mutates and spreads rapidly. At 38 years old, the diagnosis gave the mother of three a whole new perspective on life.
"I used to want to see my grandkids raised and now I just want to see my kids raised and happy," Parker said.
Spending time with her kids means having energy to drive them to school and weekend sports matches. For that, Parkers turns to medical marijuana.
Parker gets her marijuana at the Kern River Collective. It's a popular medical marijuana shop in Oildale where all types of people or patients come for their medicine.
Proposition 215, California's Compassionate Use Act of 1996, allows those with a prescription to use medical marijuana. Users can have ailments ranging from cancer to anorexia to migraine headaches.
"I've been using marijuana since I was about 21. That's when I was diagnosed with scoliosis and rheumatoid arthritis and my right leg is three inches shorter," said medical marijuana patient Julie Kent. "I didn't know how to subdue the pain except to take Vicodin and I become reliant on it. With medical marijuana, at least you don't get reliant on it and it helps."
The Compassionate Use Act also sites chronic pain or "any other illness for which marijuana provides relief." In fact, the spectrum of ailments is so broad, it leads some to believe that almost anyone could likely get a prescription.
The management at the Kern River Collective wouldn't talk on camera, but John and Debbie Miller who own Oildale Autoparts a few doors down, say they see sketchy behavior outside the collective.
"I've seen people come out of the medical marijuana store and hand off their purchase to other people," Debbie Miller said. "I've seen them share with other people. I've seen them sitting down in the alley smoking it with other people and I've smelled it."
The Millers said although the shop is a good neighbor, they wish management would do a better job of policing its members.
"Legalize it and let us get the tax revenue or just have them police it more and make sure they know who they are selling it to and make sure that their medical problem warrants getting a prescription so they can go in there and buy it whenever they want to," Miller said.
So who decides if a patient gets medical marijuana? Patients say a few times a week doctors - mostly from Southern California - come to town to write prescriptions.
We sent Daniel Roberts into 420 Evaluations to see how easy or difficult it was to get.
"I think anyone can get it, in my opinion. I can see the good side for people with cancer, glaucoma, things like this, but the people that don't need it I think they can get it just as easy as anyone else," Roberts said.
For $60 and five minutes of the doctor's time, Roberts got a prescription to help with his shoulder pain, good for one year. He said he brought records of past shoulder surgeries, but the doctor didn't verify the records or take his vital signs.
We had an appointment to talk to Dr. Theodore Schlater at 420 Evaluations, but when we showed up to do the interview he refused to speak with us.
But, Dr. Hemmal Kothary, who does not prescribe medical marijuana, said it is a good pain reliever for a cancer patient but not someone with shoulder pain.
"One of the biggest things we find in using narcotic medication for pain is having people get addicted to it," said Dr. Kothary, CEO of High Grove Center. "Then having people use medical marijuana they are definitely going to get addicted to that stuff, now we have another problem on our hands."
At the Herbal Consultations Center a few doors down from 420 Evaluations, patients see the doctor via Skype while a nurse takes the patient's information.
"We have stamp of approval from the State Board of Osteopathic Medicine so we are legit," said Robert Wade with Cannabis Collective and Herbal Consultations Center. "These are not just quacks on probation, these are surgeons with five-star ratings from different hospitals in L.A."
A former police officer with a passion for medical marijuana, Wade said it's not his job to question the doctor's orders, but to service patients who find relief in medical marijuana.
Patients like Shann Parker, who got her prescription less than a year ago. She medicates twice a day and takes only one additional pill to treat her cancer. Parker said she wants to spend as much time with her kids as possible. She is three and a half years into the five years the doctor gave her to live.
"Swing my daughter on the swings, watch wrestling matches on Saturday at West High or wherever they are," Parker said. "Just spending time with them and the ones I love that is the most important thing. And, if marijuana helps me do that then so be it."
Many of the medical marijuana patients we spoke with said they want stricter regulations on who can get a prescription so medical marijuana doesn't get into the wrong hands.
In the interest of full disclosure, we paid for Daniel Roberts to be evaluated for a marijuana prescription and we will destroy the prescription he was issued.
