Pubdate: Mon, 14 Aug 2017
Source: News, The (New Glasgow, CN NS)
Copyright: 2017 Transcontinental Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ngnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3343
Author: Kevin Adshade
Page: A3

'THIS IS MEDICINE, NOT ABOUT GETTING HIGH'

Medicinal marijuana dispensary in Stellarton offers variety of
products

This isn't your grandma's home remedy.

Although maybe it is - maybe your grandma is totally on board with
medical marijuana taking away the aches and pains that can come with
old age.

"If you eat that ice cream, you're going to feel very, very relaxed.
We've got people in their 80s coming in here," said Hank Merchant,
chief executive officer of HBB Medical - a medicinal pot dispensary in
Stellarton that opened several weeks ago.

Merchant was asked about the ice cream that comes with certain levels
of THC.

Chocolate ice cream - and other flavours like choco-mint and
strawberry - can be found here; there are also baked goods, candy
bars, apple cider, creams, bath salts, massage oils, salves and of
course, enough weed to make Cheech & Chong's eyes turn red: pot that
contains both THC - the property that gives users the marijuana high -
as well as CBD (cannabidiol) can be purchased here, with a doctor's
prescription.

Where possible, most items come pre-packaged, in childproof containers
with the THC levels listed, along with other pertinent
information.

Ice cream that gives you a little buzz? It's not such a wacky idea,
after all.

"Women in particular will come in and buy 24 brownies at a time," he
said. "Usually, they use them for sleeping disorders. This is
medicine, it's not about getting high."

There's even doggy treats available for purchase, to help ease your
pooch through any physical struggles he might be encountering in his
later years.

"We kept our dog alive for an extra year by giving him these," says
Merchant.

"We're new, so we've only got about 150 clients right now, but we've
only been here for about a month," he said of the business, which
Merchant believes has plenty of room for growth.

Merchant isn't some hippy holdover still pining for the days of 
Woodstock: in the late 1960s, he was a NATO peacekeeper in Europe when 
he first witnessed (with awe, he says) the easy access of recreational 
pot, during trips to Amsterdam.

Later on, in the early 1980s in the jungles of Sri Lanka, he learned
of the medicinal benefits of pot, as people there grew their own weed
to relieve anxiety, dull physical pain and relieve side effects of
epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other assorted ailments.

The pharmaceutical companies, he claimed, have been trying to keep the
benefit of medical marijuana under wraps for decades.

But like a Grade A shipment of Maui Wowee, the word got
around.

"Big pharma is one guy, and I am the other guy, and there are hundreds
of guys like me across Canada and the U.S."

HBB Medical also has dispensaries in Dartmouth, Moncton and
Fredericton, and two more are in the works for New Brunswick.
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MAP posted-by: Matt