The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Keystone folks talk medical marijuana
UPPER MERION » About 50 people came to learn about Pennsylvania’s new medical marijuana plan at a recent forum held by the Keystone Shops, which is opening three dispensaries in the area.
Chief Operating Officer Skip Shuda; Jason Mitchell, general manager; and Dr. Louis van de Beek, chief medical officer, spoke and fielded questions at the township building. Keystone, which won a state license, will have shops in Devon, King of Prussia and Upper Darby. The Devon shop is expected to open its doors in early January.
Although there are many diverse conditions that may be treated with medical marijuana, patients are required to register
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with the state and also need to go to a doctor who has been certified by the state Department of Health to complete their registration. The required identification cards are $50. To find a doctor who has registered and been approved by the state, patients can go to: www. medicalmarijuna.pa.gov.
Van de Beek explained the benefits of cannabis for several of the 17 conditions for which marijuana treatment is permitted by the new Pennsylvania law.
“We truly believe that we can help people and we can move things forward,” van de Beek said. “Keystone Shops will be the people responsible for bringing medical marijuana to the therapeutic landscape…I think this tool will be extremely welcomed as part of our armamentarium.”
Some of the uses of medical marijuana include increasing appetite in cancer patients, controlling nerve pain, controlling seizures, helping those with autism, and patients with Parkinson’s disease, ALS and multiple sclerosis. In MS the insulation that surrounds the “wires” of the nerves burns off, and the neurons fire randomly, he said.
“By binding to the sites that produce the inflammation … through the presynaptic in the nerves, binding with the cells that produce inflammation, we can actually decrease the recurrences in the relapsing and remitting multiple sclerosis,” van de Beek said. Tremors in Parkinson’s patients can be reduced and their “ability to function, at least partly, can be restored,” he said.
Cannabis can also help with Crohn’s disease and inflammatory bowel disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and pain from sickle cell anemia, he said.
“A large part of the immune system is located in the gut,” van de Beek said. Cannabis binds to receptors there and prevents inflammation. It can also help patients with HIV by improving their appetite and may even help those patients maintain a higher level of disease-fighting T-cells, he said.
Marijuana also helps with glaucoma. One of van de Beek’s patients, who grew up in Jamaica, has glaucoma and has been selfmedicating with marijuana for years, he said. That man has tried the medical drops now available but he believes marijuana works better.
Also, the opioid crisis that is predicted to kill some 1.6 million Americans in the next decade might be turned back if patients are prescribed medical marijuana for pain instead of opioid drugs. States that allow medical marijuana have 25 percent fewer opioid-related deaths, van de Beek said.
Van de Beek urged those in the audience to talk to their doctors about getting certified to prescribe medical marijuana. Physicians must take a $400 online training course first, which van de Beek noted pales in relation to the cost of medical school.
Mitchell, a patient himself who has experience managing medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, said people will be allowed inside the lobbies of the Keystone Shops to discuss their conditions but cannot come into the secure portion of the buildings without first obtaining a state identification card. Medical marijuana patients can also designate two caregivers to help them pick up their prescription.
One audience member asked if Keystone is in contact with the growers and processors, and Mitchell said that they were.
Ann Pereira-Ogan, of Radnor, asked whether health insurance companies are offering coverage for medical marijuana prescriptions and the cost of the treatments. Mitchell told her insurers are not covering it yet but the state will regulate the cost of the products.
“Nobody is here to gouge anybody,” Mitchell said. There are also state subsidies for those low income people who qualify. Shuda said that once Keystone Shops are up and running they plan to use a percentage of their profits for a compassionate dispensary, as well.
In response to more questions about finding doctors, Mitchell said the list of state-certified physicians grows every day.
“We as patients are going to push the doctors,” Mitchell said. “Patients are definitely pulling it through the system.”
“Doctors, like everybody else, resist change,” said van de Beek.
Insurance companies require that doctors charge only what they would for an office visit to certify a patient for medical marijuana use, but some doctors who do not accept insurance may charge whatever the market will bear for certifying exams.
Pereira-Ogan asked whether it would be primary care doctors who are certified.
Van de Beek said he’s read of a gynecologist in Altoona who got certified and suddenly had a plethora of calls from male patients, garnering some laughter.
While medical marijuana is expected to help patients with many conditions, “there’s no magic pill here,” said Mitchell. “Nobody’s saying marijuana is the answer (for all diseases).”
But it is helpful for “certain people, with certain conditions,” van de Beek said.
Nicholas Martens, of Stroudsburg, asked whether the marijuana that Keystone sells will be certified organically grown. Martens is the co-owner of SkyBlue Vapor, which makes vaping devices.
“The state sets the parameters,” Mitchell said. Keystone “is interested in how marijuana is grown and processed.” It will be tested for purity.
“Our goal is to put the highest quality marijuana on the shelf. Anything on the shelf is something we believe in,” Mitchell said. “My intent is to hold (the producers) to the highest standards.”
The medicinal products will be in the form of pills, oil, patches, ointments, tinctures, liquids or vaporizable pellets, not plant material. For more information about Keystone Shops: www.keystoneshops.com.