Pubdate: Fri, 03 Apr 2015
Source: Kamloops This Week (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Kamloops This Week
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1271
Author: Andrea Klassen
Page: A21

FINDING REALEAF

Many of Kamloops' chronic pain patients have likely already met Dr.
Ian Mitchell during one of his shifts in Royal Inland Hospital's
emergency room.

"They don't have family doctors, so they end up in the emergency room
and I see them all the time," he said.

"They're on Dilaudid and morphine and Percocet and it's terrible. Most
of these patients don't want to be on these medications, but they need
something to help with their pain."

With the opening of a new clinic on St. Paul Street downtown, Mitchell
is hoping to see some of the same patients in a new venue, where he
can offer them another option - medical marijuana.

Mitchell is a consultant with the Realeaf Wellness Centre, which
opened in Kamloops in February and aims to connect patients with
medical-marijuana producers across the country.

Until recently, the federal government allowed medical-marijuana users
to grow their own supply at home.

That all changed last year, when Health Canada put responsibility for
supplying the crop in the hands of so-called licensed producers.

Mitchell puts the number of producers at about 11, each selling a
variety of strains.

Realeaf connects patients in need with producers, helping them pick a
strain and a supplier best suited to their needs.

Releaf also helps patients work through the bureaucracy surrounding
medical pot.

While a pre-existing diagnosis for a condition that could be helped by
marijuana is required, Mitchell said the clinic is open to those whose
own family doctors have recommended medical pot and those who either
don't have a family doctor or have a physician who is reluctant to to
prescribe.

"Most doctors, first off, they're not educated enough about this to
prescribe it," Mitchell said.

"Secondly they don't want to be that doc in a Hawaiian shirt who gives
out a prescription to all these young guys who come in with back pain.

"Nobody wants to be that doc and there's a lot of stigma attached to
it, still."

Besides the supply, Realeaf also offers counselling services to answer
questions ranging from how to use vaporizer to figuring out correct
dosages.

Fees to use the clinic range from about $65 to just under $300, said
Realeaf owner Ron Bell, depending on whether physician and counselling
services are required.

So far, about 40 people are using some variety of the clinic's service
and Bell hopes to expand locally with more consultants.

Bell, who has operations in Kamloops and Vancouver, also wants to add
a clinic on Vancouver Island.

Mitchell found his interest in medicinal cannabis mostly by
accident.

Attending an American conference with the hopes of learning more about
alternative uses for ketamine, he decided to take in a session on
marijuana and said he was "floored" by its possible uses.

He is now in the process of setting up a study with a producer on
Nanaimo that will determine the effectiveness of medical marijuana in
treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Mostly it comes from anecdotal evidence from the Vietnam War,"
Mitchell said.

"Vietnam veterans had PTSD, used cannabis and found it effective, but
there's no research to back that up."

While animal studies and some less-comprehensive trials have pointed
towards pot's effectiveness, the study would be the first to compare
various marijuana strains against a placebo.

It's set to go ahead later this year pending Health Canada and
University of B.C. approvals.
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MAP posted-by: Matt