The Colorado-based Medical Marijuana Assistance Program of America (MMAPA) responded on Tuesday to being jabbed over the weekend by Saturday Night Live, calling the show's joke funny, if inaccurate.
During Saturday Night Live's venerable Weekend Update mock news show, long-time cast Seth Meyers equated the organization's efforts to bring medical marijuana-prescribing doctors to rural areas to "a guy selling weed out of a trailer." (view the clip below)
On Tuesday, MMAPA founder Vincent Palazzotto said the following in a statement:
"First, we want to thank 'Saturday Night Live' for highlighting the importance of medical marijuana and MMAPA's role providing access and affordability to low-income patients who have the least resources. We found the skit to be quite funny, in the satirical fashion it was presented.
However, the national attention gives our organization an opportunity to expand the dialogue over medical marijuana, and how we as a society are including patients in developing America's medical marijuana laws. While we appreciate the humor presented in the skit about selling 'weed out of a trailer,' MMAPA is actually providing low-cost medical care and physician evaluations to indigent patients who lack the most basic life resources.
MMAPA's physicians do not, under any circumstances, distribute medical marijuana, but rather provide only traditional and alternative medical treatments and evaluations to patients who qualify under state-specific guidelines. We have converted our recreational vehicles into mobile doctor's offices to bring alternative medicine to underserved parts of Colorado as well as to other states where medical marijuana is legal.
So, while we appreciate the humor 'SNL' has brought to this discussion, we hope people across America take this opportunity to expand the dialogue over medical marijuana while focusing our attention where the debate begins - with patients."
WATCH THE SNL CLIP:
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