It's extremely easy to get a marijuana prescription in Virginia

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

I'm a newly minted as a medical marijuana patient after an approximately four-minute Zoom doctor's visit.

What's happening: To find out how hard it is to get a marijuana prescription, I decided to get one myself.

State of play: There are more than 1,000 registered practitioners for medical cannabis, per the Virginia Board of Pharmacy, but I headed to Virginia NORML to check out their list of a dozen or so practices.

Three hours later, I was on Zoom talking to a physician's assistant, who, while professional and courteous, was sitting in a visibly untidy home office.

And just like that — three hours and four minutes after making an appointment — I had a certificate emailed to me that I could use immediately to buy medical marijuana in Virginia.

The bottom line: Marijuana is effectively legal as long as you can afford the medical appointment.

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