One of the most difficult aspects of moving to a new city is finding a new set of doctors. Since relocating to Austin 14 months ago, I’ve spent a great deal of time “trying out” local family practice physicians, dentists, optometrists and other specialists in an effort to find providers who meet my expectations. Living in a fast-growing city means I have plenty of options to choose from, and, like most of today’s patients, I have a list of requirements. Unfortunately, not all healthcare providers understand this fact — and they’re paying dearly.

More than 20 million Americans used marijuana in 2013. Possesion and sale are illegal under federal law, but medical marijuana use is legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Many states also have reduced or eliminated penalties for recreational use, resulting in a patchwork of restrictions and availability for those seeking medical help or just a casual high.

Anna Demarco was 21 the first time she smoked weed. She was having an anxiety attack in the car with her friend Patrick, who had a habit of burning while cruising, and he passed her the bowl to try to help calm her down. Anna didn't know what else to do, so she took a hit.

Anxiety was a regular thing for Anna, who had been anorexic for as long as she could remember. She weighed less than 100 pounds until her junior year of high school; by the time she turned 20, she was fluctuating between 115 pounds and a dangerously-low 85 pounds. The anxiety seemed to feed hereating disorder, and sometimes manifested itself in throttling attacks like the one she felt that day.

Gaston Miron says his prescription helps deal with side effects from cancer medication

It was just one year ago that Gaston Milon was living a healthy life — an avid cyclist and kayaker raising three small girls along with his wife in their home in central Alberta.

And then, one Sunday morning, he started coughing.

"I just couldn't do anything. I couldn't walk around. I couldn't breath," he said.

"I was coughing and coughing. I was coughing for a week."

'I didn't want to be high all day long. I just wanted to cope.' - Gaston Milon

Eventually, Milon went to the emergency room, but doctors could not determine what was wrong. It took months before he got a sure diagnosis.

PERTH mum Joelle Neville would do anything for her epileptic daughter, including buying her marijuana.

Ava Neville was diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis, a rare genetic disease that causes benign tumours to grow in the brain, and her condition was declared “inoperable” in 2013 after two failed brain surgeries.

“We were told she was no longer a surgical candidate, so we were left with nothing,” her mother said.

Most of the medical marijuana patients in Connecticut are being seen by a handful of doctors, whose role is to certify patients’ eligibility and send them to one of the state’s six dispensaries.

That’s the case even as state Consumer Protection Commissioner Jonathan Harris has launched a public service campaign to increase the number of doctors registered in the medical marijuana program.

Only 239 doctors have signed up as of July 23, Harris said, up 17 from the beginning of the campaign of radio and print public service announcements, although Harris said he couldn’t determine any connection between the increase and the campaign itself.

"We are encouraging cultivation of tobacco that causes various types of cancer. At the other end, we are ignoring the medicinal properties of a plant that can help cancer patients."

Top oncologists of Bengaluru have decided to lobby with the Center to lift the ban on cannabis for medicinal purposes due to the health benefits of the drug.

Many medical marijuana users in Canada pay a high price due to their prescriptions because life insurance policies consider them smokers — no matter how they consume the drug.

Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled patients with legal prescriptions have the right to take marijuana in any form: including through smoking it, edible products, or cannabis-infused teas and oils.

However, the country's life insurance industry can consider marijuana users similar to smokers, even if they use vaporizers or edibles.

"To be honest, it really doesn't make sense," said Syed Raza, the director of marketing with Toronto-based LSM Insurance.

The debate goes on — yes or no to medical marijuana?

As a parent who is currently giving my child medical marijuana for epilepsy, it’s hard for me to understand the resistance. The answer seems so obvious to me: why wouldn’t we try this?

Cannabis, not drink, is the major drug problem of 2015 among the young, according to Ireland's leading adolescent psychiatrist Dr Bobby Smyth, who says drug debt is now a huge issue for Irish teens too.

"Cannabis accounts for 85pc of my clients. It's very much the dominant drug, it's head and shoulders above everything else and alcohol would be second.

"Up until eight years ago, cannabis would have accounted for 25-to 40pc of referrals," the psychiatrist and Trinity College lecturer said.

"In terms of the number of young people whose lives have been damaged by this drug, we have nothing to compare to, you would have to look back to the heroin epidemic in the 80s. Although the consequences are different, for me, it is the drug problem of 2015," he said.