Why Do Some States Restrict Flower From Medical Cannabis Patients?

• Some states with cannabis legalization have prohibited smoking; these “non-combustion laws” allow patients to vape or process cannabis flower, but forbid patients from smoking it via traditional means (e.g., in joints or glassware).
• Why keep medical cannabis patients from smoking? While it’s difficult to identify specific motivators for non-combustion laws, states could be trying to reduce the risks associated with typical smoking.
• Luckily, states with medical cannabis legalization offer numerous other product types for patients: edibles, topicals, tinctures, vape products, and more.

Before lighting up (or even rolling) a joint, take a closer look at your state’s cannabis regulations—you may be in a “non-combustion” state, or a state that doesn’t allow traditional cannabis smoking.

We know what you’re thinking: “That seems like a weird technicality. And how would the authorities ever know that you smoked your cannabis flower instead of putting it in a vaporizer? Why do non-combustion states even sell flowers in the first place?”

These are all reasonable questions—and only some of them have clear answers. Let’s dive into this nuanced topic in more detail to help you find your footing on this shaky legal ground.

Flower Restrictions: Limited Quantities vs. Non-Combustion Laws

Flower restrictions take two distinct forms: quantity limitations and non-combustion regulations. In some states, these regulations overlap. Let’s take a closer look at both.

Purchase Limits for Cannabis Products

Many states (with either medical legalization, recreational use laws, or both) restrict how much cannabis patients can purchase and possess at one time.

These laws:

• Break down quantities by product – In Vermont, for instance, users can purchase up to one ounce of cannabis flower per dispensaries visit. The state’s laws further specify that this equates to 14 grams of cannabis concentrates, 8 single-gram vape cartridges, and 168 packages of 50 mg edibles.
• Can be tied to medical recommendations – While healthcare providers must adhere to legal recommendation limits, they can give patients access to specific quantities of cannabis. For instance, one patient may be authorized to purchase 14 grams per month while another can purchase up to an ounce per month.

These laws stipulate how much cannabis patients can have or purchase at once—but they don’t limit what patients can do with these products.

Non-Combustion Laws Forbidding Smoking

Non-combustion laws, on the other hand, prohibit patients from smoking cannabis via:

• Traditional rolled smokables (e.g., joints and blunts)
• Glassware smoking (e.g., using bowls or bongs)

As of September 2024, it’s against the law to smoke cannabis in the following states (which all have some sort of provisions for legal cannabis use):

• Alabama (which hasn’t yet created a state dispensaries system)
• Pennsylvania
• Utah
• West Virginia (which also prohibits the sale of edibles at dispensaries)

In Alabama, current legislation is not yet functionally in effect; the state has yet to open any dispensaries. However, when dispensaries do open, legislation does not permit the sale or use of edibles and cannabis flower.

But this isn’t the case in Pennsylvania, Utah, and West Virginia—it’s perfectly legal to purchase flower in these states.

Smoking vs. Vaping: Legal Minutiae

The nuances above are just the tip of the iceberg. What do non-combustion states expect patients to do with flower if not smoke it?

• Vaporize it – In non-combustion states that sell cannabis flower in dispensaries (Pennsylvania, Utah, and West Virginia), patients are allowed to use vape devices that vaporize raw cannabis flower instead of combusting it.

While vapor is made of liquid particles only (which are suspended in air during the heating process), smoke contains solids (which are also suspended in air during a different heating process).

• Process it into other products – Patients are allowed to create their own edible products (except in West Virginia and, eventually, in Alabama) using cannabis flower, create extracts (like tinctures and oils), or formulate their own topical products using cannabis flower purchased at a dispensaries.

In an effort to prevent patients from smoking, dispensaries in non-combustion states typically don’t sell glassware, rolling papers, and other smoking-related accessories.

However, these can all be used for tobacco smoking (which remains legal in all four non-combustion states), so they’re still relatively accessible.

Are These Laws Enforced?

While refusing to sell glassware and rolling papers may prevent some patients from smoking, anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that these laws aren’t strictly enforced unless someone is caught breaking another cannabis law—like using cannabis in public, for instance.

However, TeleLeaf encourages all medical cannabis patients to follow their state’s laws to the letter. It’s simply not worth losing your medical cannabis access over something trivial like using a prohibited administration method.

Why Restrict Smoking?

Half of the states that prohibit smoking sell flower, patients can use flower for other applications, and non-combustion laws don’t seem to be enforced—so why restrict smoking in the first place?

While it’s difficult to say with certainty why non-combustion laws are in place in these states, a few potential factors could have influenced this legislative nuance.

Avoiding the Potential Risks of Smoking

While using cannabis presents very few risks, smoking anything (cannabis, tobacco, and other plant-based products) does pose some potential risks to your health:

• Particulates in smoke can irritate the respiratory system
• Secondhand smoke poses a consent issue to non-smoking people in your proximity

To allow patients to access the therapeutic benefits of cannabis while reducing the health risks associated with smoking, perhaps legislators came to a compromise: people can access marijuana, but they can’t use it to potentially endanger their health.

It’s worth noting that, for many patients, the risks of smoking cannabis (an all-natural, plant-based product) are vastly outweighed by the benefits (effects ranging from pain relief to immune support).

Appeasing Legislative Players

While we don’t want to speculate without evidence, it’s possible that forbidding smoking is a legislative concession made by pro-cannabis legislators to appease anti-cannabis legislators.

This is an unfortunate reality at every legislative level; to pass positive legislation, lawmakers must sometimes make room for negative caveats to secure the votes they need to pass a bill. This phenomenon isn’t exclusive to cannabis legislation, either.

Decreasing Convenience

There’s no denying that prohibiting smoking can decrease the convenience level of cannabis administration.

Smoking is:

• Fast-acting
• Beginner- and user-friendly
• Typically more affordable than vaping or using edibles

It’s also one of the oldest cannabis consumption methods—so, perhaps anti-smoking stipulations are intrinsically linked to the pervasive stigma against marijuana and other natural medicines.

Without evidence to directly support that anti-cannabis legislators are trying to increase the barrier to entry for cannabis use, this implication is pure conjecture—perhaps less than conspiracy but more than coincidence.

If stigma really is the source for anti-smoking sentiments among lawmakers, there’s a silver lining: the antidote to stigma is education. By increasing overall access to cannabis, pro-marijuana advocates can build the clinical data, anecdotal evidence, and other knowledge sources they need to reverse the tides and, eventually, promote a more positive perception of cannabis nationwide.

How to Use Cannabis in Non-Combustion States

In states that prohibit “flower to flame,” patients certainly have other options:

• Vaping is relatively convenient, fast-acting, and discreet; it produces low odors, and it might be less risky than smoking (but evidence is limited).
• Edibles are also relatively discreet, virtually odor-free, and precisely dosed; they’re one of the most convenient methods for medical cannabis patients looking to dose with consistency.
• Tinctures and oils are extractions that can be administered sublingually (under the tongue), added to food products, or mixed into beverages. They’re not as fact-acting as smoking, but they’re a precision-loving patient’s dream.
• Topicals are especially useful for patients looking to avoid intoxication. Since topically applied cannabinoids (including THC) don’t reach the bloodstream, they don’t induce widespread or psychoactive effects.

At the end of the day, patients living in non-combustion states still have multiple options for administering all-natural cannabis medicines.

TeleLeaf: Your Source for Cannabis Knowledge and Care

If the above information is any indication, cannabis laws (and medical information) can be confusing. When you’re ready to explore the health benefits of cannabis, you need an ally to walk you through the process and help you navigate these often murky waters.

Enter TeleLeaf: the best online medical marijuana card service on the market today. Our network of providers makes it easy to get a medical cannabis recommendation and start the medical cannabis access process right from the comfort of your home.

Ready to get started? Complete our quick intake form.

Sources:

Flowhub. Vermont Cannabis Laws Every dispensaries Operator Must Know.
https://flowhub.com/

E1011 Labs. No Smoking Allowed: Non-Combustion Cannabis States in America.
https://e1011labs.com/

Marijuana Policy Project. The West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act.
https://www.mpp.org/states/west-virginia/west-virginia-medical-cannabis-act/

JT Science. An Intro to Aerosol Chemistry.
https://www.jt-science.com/our-approach/aerosol-chemistry

NHS. Vaping to Quit Smoking.
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/vaping-to-quit-smoking/