RE:A question for you TrennamI am also skeptical about this 15% claim. Until I see some official numbers.
I also share your frustration with Drs and their head in their as#@ stigma. I went thru 2 yrs of fighting with my own Dr. about this. This was under the old MMAR where all I needed was a prescription and then I would have to forward that to HC and get interviewed and verifed again as to how much I really needed. The official paperwork even had a clause that specifically stated the Dr. who signed a prescription was not liable and no longer concerned with me since I was now going to be dealing with HC for the MMJ from now on.. nope still would not sign off on it.. To say I was ticked off was putting it mildly.
His main thing was that he didn't know how much gram(s) to prescribe. I said just give me the minimum of 1 gram and I would take it from there. Still nothing. I started looking for a new GP. 2 yrs later the new MMPR was officially law. (Yes!)
So I went to an MMJ Clinic. Did you search for one in your local area? I went to a new one just opened up and was lucky enough to get in within the first month before they got swamped with new patients. The only downside is that I have to pay a $200 yearly membership. Some places I think might charge more. But it goes toward leasing of the office, equipment and staff and so on.
They are very strict in that the patients should not be taking any other drugs like opiates (codeine, oxycontin, percs etc.) unless their Dr prescribes it. Even then MJ is considered a substitute and they prefer you to use it only. I have to lterally pee in a cup everytime I go and they use a test strip to check my system is clean of any opiates.
Once I had a cold / flu for a couple weeks before I went in and I had taken Nyquil and cough syrup and a wole bunch of medicines. One of the over the counter drugs had some sort of opiate or small amount of codeine or something that showed up in my pee sample... holy hell, you would think I was a major drug dealer!. Got grilled why I tested positive for opiates.
Anyway- they are very good. It's an actual licensed GP Dr. that I saw there to get my prescription and then I see anopther person in the office who walked me through the various LPs and strains and what each can help me with. Bedrocan at the time was one of the few who were still accepting patients. Everyone else was filled and had long waiting lists.
The very knowlegeable consultant, who was himself an MMJ patient along with the receptionist, told me "There are MJ companies and then there is Bedrocan. The top of the line, best of the best who have been doing this for over 13yrs." He even mentioned Cannimed :) as the other one he would recommend over all the others. So obviously I said I want the bestest sign me up! And the rest is history.
Did you try doing a search for "Medical Marijuana Clinic" in your area? Did you get any hits. They are popping up all over the place now. Also I think you can do a skype interview with some of them and get a prescription that way instead of physically being at the location. (Not sure how legit some of these remote ones are though.) Again the downside is that there is a fee for that. We are going through hoops to legally get our medicine.
I do see this changing in the future though. Keep positive. It's a pain- but it was definitely worth it. Let me know your location, PM me if you wish and I'll do some looking around too for you.
MagicBeans wrote:
Do you see the numbers of MMJ patients rising as quickly as projected. What I believe is suggested numbers of approx 15% a month. Just my own difficulty in finding a doctor if I chose to do so in Calgary runs contrary to the notion its easy to add patients. The oasis clinic mentioned by Johnny seems to be the go to clinic at this point and it still requires you to go to BC to get a prescription. In Canada's fourth largest city, I can't get a MJ prescription? I talked to my mediclinic doctor about it and they just ignored me and left....
We can't expect everyone to fly to Vancouver to get prescriptions and end up growing patient numbers 15% a month. It seems those numbers have stalled anyhow and its really hard to find accurate verifiable numbers or rate of growth from any source.