Yes, it should be enough. Most pot doctors will take you at your word. If you say you have arthritis pain and that you would rather not take Tylenols, they're not going to adopt an adversarial attitude and make you prove that you really do have pain.

Someone said that you can get a pot recommendation for writer's block. Well, not quite. I'm sure most doctors would suspect they were getting pranked if someone literally asked them for a pot recommendation for their writer's block. But any kind of pain or depression is on firm ground.

It will help if you bring copies of your medical records. If you've mentioned pain to your doctor several times, that's even better (well, no, it's not better that you've been in pain longer, but it makes your case stronger). A strong case also helps the pot doctor. Doctors are not in the business of saying no to people, so of course they're going to see cases where the patient has no documentation but the doctor believes the patient is legitimate. But every case they see that does have good documentation goes towards proving (if it ever came to that) that the doctor wasn't just handing out recommendations like after-dinner mints.

And if I can get on my soapbox a bit, it's too bad that so many doctors won't touch medical pot. The original idea was that people would talk to their doctors, the doctors who had seen them over the years (one hopes), and so there could be an informed discussion about pot and a determination of "medical need" that would be beyond question.

Instead, people have to go to doctors who "specialize" in pot recommendations, and the people who see them aren't even referred by their own doctors. Anybody can see that even the most scrupulous pot doctor simply doesn't have enough information to screen in only cases of legitimate "medical need."

And it's doubly bad because, on the one hand, it creates the impression that pot docs are sort of fly-by-niters (like doctors who did abortions in the 50s), and on the other hand, it puts an enormous burden on pot doctors, who are expected to be stingy with the recommendations, yet who by their very nature are not stingy people.

I mean, if you say that pot just makes you feel happier in general, that should be good enough reason! But anyway, until that day, we work with the system we got. Ask your doctor's nurse or office manager for a copy of your records. By law they have to give them to you, but if they make a big production about it, just go to the pot doctor as you are. The pot doctor can call your doctor, and since he (the pot doctor) is a legitimate, licensed medical practicioner, your doctor can't just blow him off.

Alright, my friend, good luck, and don't feel "questionable." If pot helps you in any way, you should be able to use it, and anyone who yammers on about "legitimate medical need" had better start explaining how Botox and Viagra bring people back from the brink of death. :S2: