Medicinal cannabis pain clinic opens
A medicinal cannabis company that offers pain sufferers relief through cannabis products has opened a clinic in Nelson.
Medical Kiwi has opened the Pain Clinic on Bridge St, opposite the Suter Art Gallery.
The clinic’s website says it provides online and in-person GP consultations to people suffering from pain, anxiety, or epilepsy. Prescriptions for CBD oil and medicinal cannabis can be made.
Former Nelson mayor Aldo Miccio is the chairperson of Nelson-based Medical Kiwi, which owns the clinic. Miccio was mayor of Nelson from 2010-2013.
Medical Kiwi had previously planned to open a site in Brightwater that would have provided ‘‘significant economic benefits’’ for the region, including 245 jobs.
Miccio said while the company still leased the Brightwater land, the proposed facility was put on hold two years ago, as it would take too long to build from scratch. Instead, the company had established a ‘‘world-class’’ cannabis cultivation and drying facility in Christchurch, he said.
In 2021, Medical Kiwi admitted breaching fair dealing provisions of the Financial Markets Conduct Act, and agreed to refund investors. Miccio said that issue had been clarified and completed.
He said the Pain Clinic planned to expand to Australia at the end of the year.
The Pain Clinic clinical adviser Dr Tom Mulholland attended the Nelson clinic’s opening on Monday, where he presented a plea for medicinal cannabis’s health benefits to be taken seriously.
Mullholland cited research undertaken by the Faculty of Pain Medicine at the Australia and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, saying chronic pain cost New Zealand more than diabetes or dementia, but there was no comprehensive plan to address it.
The Pain Clinic was launched in March as a national online service, with a Christchurch centre opening in April.
There were four more deaths of people with Covid-19 in Nelson-Marlborough, the Ministry of Health reported yesterday.
There were also 345 new cases in the top of the south, a jump from the 222 new cases on Monday, 196 on Sunday and 257 on Saturday.
In total, 42 people have now died in Te Tauihu with Covid-19, the ministry said.
Yesterday, there were 15 people in hospital with Covid in Nelson-Marlborough.
Nationally, there were 10,772 new community cases of Covid-19 and a further 21 deaths of people with the virus reported yesterday, along with 788 people in hospital.
The Ministry of Health also announced changes to the way Covid deaths are reported. The focus on reporting total Covid deaths would shift to cases where Covid was the underlying or a contributory cause of a death, Public Health Agency deputy director-general Dr Andrew Old said. Those were deaths that could be wholly or partially attributed to the virus.