Cannabis clinic to open in May
Whether you’re a proponent or opponent of medical cannabis, the therapeutic drug is slowly building momentum in the capital with more businesses dedicated to its use.
The latest arrival is Canadian Cannabis Clinics. It will be opening an Ottawa clinic at the end of May in a medical building on Montreal Road, the fourth Ontario location to open in a year.
The business operates like any other medical clinic where patients see a doctor and use their OHIP card as payment, but these doctors focus on assessing whether medical cannabis should be prescribed. The owners stress no cannabis will be on site.
Q How does the clinic operate?
A Ronan Levy, a co-owner and the clinic’s director and general counsel, says the clinic will be staffed by four doctors and a medical cannabis consultant.
“It’s a medical clinic. It just so happens to specialize in the prescribing of medical cannabis,” he said.
Q How did the clinic come about?
A Levy says patients have been seeking access to medical cannabis but there haven’t been many doctors prescribing it. Some doctors have said they didn’t know enough about it, while others have questioned its medicinal benefits.
“We thought, ‘Let’s create the infrastructure that makes it safe and easy and remunerative for doctors to actually prescribe it in a space,’ ” said Levy.
Q What do the doctors do?
A “All they do is assess patients for suitability for medical cannabis,” said Levy. “So when a patient comes in to see a doctor, they have to give us proof of diagnosis. So if you are coming in for your chronic or back pain, you’ve got to prove that you’ve been to another doctor who has diagnosed you with it. And you’ve got to prove that you’ve tried conventional treatments. So when used in a proper medical context … cannabis is usually not a firstline agent; it’s usually a third- or fourth-line agent (of treatment). So in order to be prescribed cannabis — at least under the College (of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario) guidelines — you have to have tried the other things.”
Q What happens after the consultation with the doctor?
A Levy says if a doctor decides a patient is a suitable candidate for medical cannabis, they will write a medical document for them and the patient will sit down with a counsellor to learn about types of strains of cannabis and licensed producers.
“The counsellor does a lot of the education, talks about how you consume it, and we always recommend patients, if they can, use vaporizers,” said Levy. “Obviously we don’t want them smoking. And the biggest part (of ) what the counselling does is they help with strain selection.”
Q Under what circumstances would a patient be refused medical cannabis?
A “If they have addiction issues, if they operate heavy machinery for a living or any sort of psychological issues that may lead to any sort of psychosis, all of these are (issues).” How do patients pay for the service?
The visits are covered by OHIP. There are no additional fees.
Q How does the clinic make money?
A “The way we generate revenue is through an OHIP split,” said Levy. “Just like most other medical clinics out there, not all, we as a clinic take a percentage of the fee that is billed to OHIP. So if (the doctor) charges a $100 for the consultation, he or she would keep $75 and we would keep $25.”