Medical Marijuana: The Debate Comes To South Florida
n the year and a half since Florida became the 26th state to legalize medical marijuana, a new breed of doctors and “ganjapreneurs” has emerged to meet patient demands. Despite the drug’s illegal status at the federal level—and what some see as a blurry line between recreational use and medicinal necessity—many patients say medical marijuana has not only improved their lives but also helped them kick traditional pharmaceuticals to the curb.
José Hidalgo isn’t naïve. As the founder and CEO of Miami-based Knox Medical—one of 13 medical marijuana treatment centers (MMTC) licensed to grow, process, transport and sell medical marijuana across Florida—he admits that recreation could be the name of the game for some of his company’s nearly 12,000 customers. But what infuriates him, he says, is when people assume most of the patients who flock to his dispensaries are just looking to get high. “It’s insulting. If you’ve bought into that notion, you should come and take a look at our dispensary waiting rooms,” he says. “We’re dealing with a very sick population of people.”
But before sick patients can get access to the medicines Knox and other licensed MMTCs are selling, a doctor certified by Florida’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use must first determine whether marijuana could have therapeutic benefits targeted to patients’ ailments.To help patients in South Florida connect with qualified doctors, Jake Greenbaum started a patient-doctor network called 877weed123. Don’t let the name of Greenbaum’s company fool you: he says that 99 percent of the patients he refers to doctors are seeking marijuana as a legitimate medicine. He says for his patients, a recreational high is the last thing on their minds—or their wallets, pointing to the high costs of doctor visits, state registry fees and non-reimbursed medicine prices that are de rigueur for medical marijuana users.
“Marijuana is plentiful on the black market in Florida,” Greenbaum explains. “People who just want to use it recreationally aren’t taking the time to come to a doctor. They’re not shelling out the amount of money medical marijuana costs, which is not covered by insurance. People who are willing to break the bank like that tend to be part of a very debilitated population. They’re wheelchair-bound with shooting pains in their limbs, they’re stage 4 cancer patients,” he says. “Some of these patients are in the kind of situations you don’t even want to believe exist.”
Hidalgo says it’s these kinds of patients Knox and other entrepreneurs who work in Florida’s new medical marijuana industry are hoping to serve. “Lives are being changed by our medicines,” he says.
Marijuana comes from all parts of cannabis, a plant comprised of a key group of chemicals known as cannabinoids. The two main chemicals used in the medicinal application of marijuana are Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)—the psychoactive compound that produces the high—and Cannabidiol (CBD)—which does not produce psychoactive effects.
In Florida, marijuana produced for medicinal purposes is tracked from seed to sale. It is grown in highly sophisticated facilities that are monitored to assure no foreign chemicals are introduced, with lighting and watering systems that control how plants are raised. Independent laboratories test each harvest to ensure the product is free from fungal or bacterial infections, and that it contains the requisite ratio of THC to CBD.
A medical marijuana user from Martin County—we’ll call Margaret—is a patient who uses medical marijuana. She doesn’t want her full name used for fear of backlash in her community, but she does want to share her message: medical marijuana has not only changed her life; it has saved it.
Margaret had her first seizure in 2005. Doctors subsequently diagnosed her with epilepsy and wrote her a prescription. “I figured I’d take a pill twice a day, and that would be that,” Margaret recalls. But that pill was not the answer Margaret had hoped it would be; nor were the other 23 medications she tried under the care of a world-class epileptologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. For the next 10 years, Margaret says she experienced at least five seizures a month—between 600 and 700 seizures in all—while struggling to function due to debilitating pharmaceutical side-effects. In 2014, Margaret turned to a 24th medication to treat her intractable epilepsy: marijuana. Today she is seizure free.
Dr. Anne Morgan, M.D., a family medicine practitioner and chief medical officer at MMJ Health in West Palm Beach, says Margaret’s results are not as extraordinary as you might think. “Cannabis drastically reduces the number of seizures many epilepsy patients suffer, without the nasty side effects that come along with most seizure disorder drugs,” Morgan says.
Morgan is licensed by the state of Florida to recommend medical marijuana to patients, and she serves on the board of directors for the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine. Six years ago, however, she says she didn’t know the first thing about marijuana’s medical applications. When several of her patients who had relocated to South Florida—from states where medical marijuana was already legal—told her how marijuana had helped with ailments like PTSD, chronic pain, cancer and epilepsy, Morgan was intrigued. “It was a wakeup call for me as a clinician to do my own research,” she says.
CONTINUE: https://www.bocalifemagazine.com/features/medical-marijuana-debate-comes-south-florida?utm_source=Email&em=dG9tcGlsaXRvd3NraUB5YWhvby5jb20%3d&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Digital+Edition+-+BL+-+May%2fJun+18+-+Promo+1&fref=fc29c31e-363a-4d1b-b868-d242a626d13f
n the year and a half since Florida became the 26th state to legalize medical marijuana, a new breed of doctors and “ganjapreneurs” has emerged to meet patient demands. Despite the drug’s illegal status at the federal level—and what some see as a blurry line between recreational use and medicinal necessity—many patients say medical marijuana has not only improved their lives but also helped them kick traditional pharmaceuticals to the curb.
José Hidalgo isn’t naïve. As the founder and CEO of Miami-based Knox Medical—one of 13 medical marijuana treatment centers (MMTC) licensed to grow, process, transport and sell medical marijuana across Florida—he admits that recreation could be the name of the game for some of his company’s nearly 12,000 customers. But what infuriates him, he says, is when people assume most of the patients who flock to his dispensaries are just looking to get high. “It’s insulting. If you’ve bought into that notion, you should come and take a look at our dispensary waiting rooms,” he says. “We’re dealing with a very sick population of people.”
But before sick patients can get access to the medicines Knox and other licensed MMTCs are selling, a doctor certified by Florida’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use must first determine whether marijuana could have therapeutic benefits targeted to patients’ ailments.To help patients in South Florida connect with qualified doctors, Jake Greenbaum started a patient-doctor network called 877weed123. Don’t let the name of Greenbaum’s company fool you: he says that 99 percent of the patients he refers to doctors are seeking marijuana as a legitimate medicine. He says for his patients, a recreational high is the last thing on their minds—or their wallets, pointing to the high costs of doctor visits, state registry fees and non-reimbursed medicine prices that are de rigueur for medical marijuana users.
“Marijuana is plentiful on the black market in Florida,” Greenbaum explains. “People who just want to use it recreationally aren’t taking the time to come to a doctor. They’re not shelling out the amount of money medical marijuana costs, which is not covered by insurance. People who are willing to break the bank like that tend to be part of a very debilitated population. They’re wheelchair-bound with shooting pains in their limbs, they’re stage 4 cancer patients,” he says. “Some of these patients are in the kind of situations you don’t even want to believe exist.”
Hidalgo says it’s these kinds of patients Knox and other entrepreneurs who work in Florida’s new medical marijuana industry are hoping to serve. “Lives are being changed by our medicines,” he says.
Marijuana comes from all parts of cannabis, a plant comprised of a key group of chemicals known as cannabinoids. The two main chemicals used in the medicinal application of marijuana are Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)—the psychoactive compound that produces the high—and Cannabidiol (CBD)—which does not produce psychoactive effects.
In Florida, marijuana produced for medicinal purposes is tracked from seed to sale. It is grown in highly sophisticated facilities that are monitored to assure no foreign chemicals are introduced, with lighting and watering systems that control how plants are raised. Independent laboratories test each harvest to ensure the product is free from fungal or bacterial infections, and that it contains the requisite ratio of THC to CBD.
A medical marijuana user from Martin County—we’ll call Margaret—is a patient who uses medical marijuana. She doesn’t want her full name used for fear of backlash in her community, but she does want to share her message: medical marijuana has not only changed her life; it has saved it.
Margaret had her first seizure in 2005. Doctors subsequently diagnosed her with epilepsy and wrote her a prescription. “I figured I’d take a pill twice a day, and that would be that,” Margaret recalls. But that pill was not the answer Margaret had hoped it would be; nor were the other 23 medications she tried under the care of a world-class epileptologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. For the next 10 years, Margaret says she experienced at least five seizures a month—between 600 and 700 seizures in all—while struggling to function due to debilitating pharmaceutical side-effects. In 2014, Margaret turned to a 24th medication to treat her intractable epilepsy: marijuana. Today she is seizure free.
Dr. Anne Morgan, M.D., a family medicine practitioner and chief medical officer at MMJ Health in West Palm Beach, says Margaret’s results are not as extraordinary as you might think. “Cannabis drastically reduces the number of seizures many epilepsy patients suffer, without the nasty side effects that come along with most seizure disorder drugs,” Morgan says.
Morgan is licensed by the state of Florida to recommend medical marijuana to patients, and she serves on the board of directors for the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine. Six years ago, however, she says she didn’t know the first thing about marijuana’s medical applications. When several of her patients who had relocated to South Florida—from states where medical marijuana was already legal—told her how marijuana had helped with ailments like PTSD, chronic pain, cancer and epilepsy, Morgan was intrigued. “It was a wakeup call for me as a clinician to do my own research,” she says.
CONTINUE: https://www.bocalifemagazine.com/features/medical-marijuana-debate-comes-south-florida?utm_source=Email&em=dG9tcGlsaXRvd3NraUB5YWhvby5jb20%3d&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Digital+Edition+-+BL+-+May%2fJun+18+-+Promo+1&fref=fc29c31e-363a-4d1b-b868-d242a626d13f
