If a healthcare professional writes an authorization on a legal prescription pad, I believe it might get the healthcare professional in trouble federally, but I don't think it'll get the patient in trouble.

That's why most authorizations use non-prescription pad tamper-resistant paper - also known simply as "security paper" - rather than the prescription pads.

Authorizations must contain the following things to comply with 69.51.A:

- Must be on tamper-resistant paper.
- Must contain a statement signed and dated by a qualifying patient's health care professional, which states that, in the health care professional's professional opinion, the patient may benefit from the medical use of marijuana.

Expiration dates are not required, although they are included by many who issue authorizations.

The cooperative/collective which gave you information about the prescription paper may have simply been trying to assist both the healthcare professional and yourself in the law and in the way that most authorizations have become rather standardized in the recent months since the law changed effective June 10, 2010. I doubt they were trying to mislead you.