Hi ykonstan! Welcome to NT!

I may get a lil wordy here...

Maine also has a medical marijuana law that was updated by the voters in November 2009.

The law has been in effect since 1998 with virtually no known problems, but the voters allowed dispensaries and increased the diseases and symptoms covered under the law this past election.

The Legislature is charged with implementing the law and they came out with their recommendations this past week
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The originators of the law that the people voted on are not happy with the recommendations. The Legislature is calling for a card ID system/registry, a limit of eight (8) dispensaries in the whole state and oversight by the state department of health and human services. The legislature is already past the 90 days they had to implement any changes to the law, and are still working on trying to come to an agreement that satisfies everyone. They are charged with coming up with a law that causes the least amount of difficulty for the people for whom the law was written.

The originators of the law feel that having a registry may endanger people if the data is breached by persons or law enforcement agencies outside of those who need to know, and that having only 8 dispensaries may make it harder for people who are approved to get what they need without traveling a long distance. It also goes against the grain to have to register for something your doctor has prescribed or recommended for treatment, especially when the FDA and the feds aren't yet on the same page...
This would be for those who choose to use the dispensaries.

Those who want to keep growing their own or buying on the market would still be covered by a letter from their doctor at this point, although that might change before the law goes into effect. There's parts in there about how many plants you can have, how many may be mature, how much processed product you can have , etc, etc, etc.

Lefthanded is correct in that different strains have a different effect.

You might try using it in a vaporizer, making a butter infusion for cooking rather than smoking it, or grinding it for baking. There are many good articles online to lead you in a direction that may work better for you.

It works for me in different fashions depending on whether I smoke or use it in cooking, and what strain it is and how strong it is. When I find something that works I save seeds to ensure that strain remains available to me. At this point I am truly not interested in being on any registry as long as I can grow it without penalty or get it from trusted sources, but I will be interested in how the dispensaries work when they start up and will investigate that end of things when it all quiets down...it's my understanding that Maine is tending to follow New Mexico as far as what they want to do in the end.