As someone who is attempting to employ weed for its bona-fide medicinal properties while having little personal interest in it, gatekeeping it behind the backwards medical industry would be extremely counterproductive. Doubly so for for a drug that the establishment doesn't have much experience with, and therefore won't necessarily recommend.

Our current healthcare system is a disgrace of paternalism and bureaucracy, amounting to a constructive denial of care. If anything many more drugs need to be made available directly over the counter - a consultation with the pharmacist should be enough.

I've arrived at these conclusions even with most of the costs being covered by Medicare (family member), good relationships with providers, intelligence/bandwidth to understand what they do, and now free telehealth visits. I can't even imagine the financial-bureaucratic world of pain for people on private "insurance" (or even worse, without) trying to get care for themselves while the system just milks them.