Cannabis Clinic Opens
A storefront with large marijuana leaf decals would have raised a few eyebrows not long ago. Medical marijuana was legalized in Maryland in 2014, and will be available to patients by the end of the summer.
To get a “head start” on what owners predict will be a bottleneck of people seeking prescriptions, a medical marijuana intake office opened in Frederick in February. CEO Michel La Doucier, a medical researcher, opened Green Health Docs in the Monocacy Village Shopping Center on East Street on Feb. 20. Green Docs is the gateway to getting into dispensaries, La Doucier said.
“We are an evaluation clinic center,” the Colorado native said. “The state of Maryland requires [a medical marijuana patient] to have at least one medical condition [to qualify for a state-issued card,] and the patient needs to provide verification for that condition. We can also absorb that patient into our practice.”
Doctors must register with the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission to issue written certifications for medical cannabis to patients for treatment of a qualifying medical condition, according to the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission website. Qualifying medical conditions include "cachexia, anorexia, wasting syndrome, severe pain, severe nausea, seizures, severe or persistent muscle spasms, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain."
Green Health Docs is a doctor and researcher owned and operated clinic, providing not only prescriptions for medical marijuana patients, but education. Unlike growing facilities and dispensaries, restricted in each legislative district, there’s no limit on the number of intake centers allowed by state law.
The initial cost for intake and evaluation at Green Health Docs is $200, and patients can renew annually for $150. Green Health Docs offers follow ups every 90 days, and required by the state every three months. “We encourage patients to call back, and communicate with us however they wish. We will go over the program multiple times,” La Doucier said.
To qualify for a medical marijuana card, patients must have a psychological or physical condition that is severe or debilitating, and/or believes the treatment will be more effective than what they are currently taking, she said. To qualify, patients must be evaluated by a doctor who is registered with the Natalie M. LaPrade Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, a service provided by Green Docs.
Green Health Docs does not issue cards, but can direct patients on how to obtain them once they qualified through a medical screening at Green Docs. The state-issued cards will be available for $50. Patients do not have to be Maryland residents to qualify.
The card gives the patient access to a dispensary. When carrying any product, the patient must keep the state-issued card, which includes a photo and registration number, in case they are stopped by police.
The Natalie M. LaPrade Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission oversees the medical cannabis program in Maryland. According to its website, patients and caregivers will be able to register on either April 10 or April 17, based on the first letter of the last name. Open registration is on April 24. Product should be available by the end of the summer, and will be announced on the website. For more information, visit http://mmcc.maryland.gov/Pages/home.aspx.
Two growers, Green Leaf Medical LLC and HMS Health LLC, have been pre-approved by the Commission to serve Frederick County; along with one processor, Pro Green Medical LLC; and four dispensaries, Bloomworks Wellness LLC, Euphoria Wellness Maryland LLC, K&R Holdings Inc., and the Wellness Institute of Maryland.
More intake centers will be coming to Frederick, La Doucier said, and potential patients should research any intake center before handing them money. La Doucier, who has worked at the National Institute of Health, has done extensive pharmaceutical research since the 1980’s, she said. Green Docs provides an “enormous amount of education, including two weekly workshops that include a syllabus.
The workshops help patients match various strains of cannabis to their conditions and how to dose. “Marijuana is not a pharmaceutical where you are prescribed so many milligrams. Marijuana is very intuitive and needs to be customized to that person,” La Doucier said.
One Man’s Story
La Doucier has researched the value of medical marijuana as a substitute for opiods in pain management. She recorded an interview with a terminally ill man, a man who never thought he would be buying and using what is still considered an illegal drug. Watch Stuller’s interview here.
David Stuller of Hagerstown was a former Washington County sheriff’s deputy, a commander of the canine unit at the Maryland Corrections Center, and an Alaska state trooper before retiring in 1994. He was a member of the Blue Mountain First Church of God, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 88, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks Lodge 378, South Mountain Rod & Gun Club and a life member of the Funkstown American Legion Post 211.
When La Doucier met him in February, he was in double stage four cancer. She doesn’t know how he found her, but he contacted her when he had just started using marijuana to ease the pain that was a constant companion, and to help him get some much-needed sleep.
Stuller was using prescribed morphine for pain, and it was knocking him out. When she first met Stuller, La Doucier said he was still on morphine, slumped in his chair and groggy,. His goal, he told her, was to walk into a dispensary, and get medical marijuana legally. Instead, he had resorted to obtaining it from a supplier. As he increased the marijuana, he cut down on the morphine and was able to finally get some sleep, he said. He died on Mar. 16, 2017. He was 71 years old.
“He died with minimal pain but with enormous amounts of fear that police would break down his door,” La Doucier said. “Stress levels go up when you are sick and exacerbate chronic pain. People talk about quality of life, what about quality of death?”
