Medical marijuana clinic says less stigma means more patients
A company that opened its first medical marijuana clinic in St. Catharines four years ago says it has seen increased interest in its services since the legalization of cannabis.
The fact marijuana is now available in Canada legally without a prescription hasn’t led to a drop in clients wanting to be assessed at Canadian Cannabis Clinics.
“We’ve had a huge increase in interest, and we already had a lot of interest from would-be patients who were curious if cannabis might help them with their ailments,” said Jillian Henderson, director of medical outreach for Canadian Cannabis Clinics, based in Toronto.
“Since legalization of the nonmedical stream, we’ve been having more people come to us asking how we can help them.”
Part of the reason for the increase, Henderson said, is less stigma.
She said people with legitimate health issues are coming forward because the medical market just became more acceptable for some people with the legalization of non-medical cannabis.
But that stigma has been decreasing over the years, she said, mainly because people are reporting that cannabis helps them manage their symptoms.
“If you take law out of it, I think what you’re getting is a critical mass of people who, whether within the law or outside the law, have tried cannabis because they’ve been suffering with chronic pain, seizure disorders, neuropathic pain and they heard from somebody else, ‘I tried it, it’s been working for me, why don’t you try it, too?’”
Canadian Cannabis Clinics has expanded quickly since it opened its first location at 80 King St. in downtown St. Catharines in September 2014 to focus solely on patients who might need medical marijuana. It was the first clinic of its kind in Niagara.
The company has since grown to 35 clinics across Canada em-
ploying 158 staff.
Patients are assessed by staff to determine if they are eligible for a medical document, like a prescription, to order medical marijuana from a licensed producer. There is no marijuana on site.
Henderson said there are three key reasons why someone with a legitimate medical or health issue would want to choose the cannabis medical market over the new legal, non-medical stream.
She said the person will get doctor-supervised care through the clinic, which they won’t get through non-medical streams.
They’ll also get a steady supply of the strain and quantity of their medicine because licensed producers, which are granted a licence from Health Canada to cultivate and sell cannabis, set aside a certain amount for medical patients.
As well, there are lower costs to acquire cannabis in the medical stream. Licensed producers offer compassionate pricing, it’s a tax deduction for patients and there are private insurance companies that have added cannabis to their benefits.
Since 2014, Henderson said, doctors across the country have referred 10,800 patients for assessments to Canadian Cannabis Clinics.
The clinics have seen 60,000 patients, with the St. Catharines clinic alone seeing more than 7,400 patients.
The St. Catharines location is where the company’s central call centre is based, averaging 630 incoming calls a day to a 1-800 number from current patients or other people with general enquiries.
In August, the company launched a home care service that allows people with mobility and other issues to book an online appointment for a fee and meet with a nurse practitioner for an assessment live from the comfort of their homes.
Henderson said the typical patient at Canadian Cannabis Clinics is more than 40 years old and just wants some relief from pain or other ailments so they can work at their job, play with their kids or go out socially and not become a shut-in due to their health issues.
“That’s really the driving force of what’s going on, the fact that it’s helping people,” she said of the growing number of people turning to the clinics.
“When you take out the fear of being arrested, that helps to further enhance people’s drive to want to try this ‘new’ medicine.”
Karena.Walter @niagaradailies.com 905-225-1628 | @karena_standard