Medical marijuana clinic to open in Edmonton

Edmonton will be getting a new medical marijuana clinic later this month. 

It will be opened under the guidance of Dr. Danial Schecter, the founder of Toronto's Cannabinoid Medical Clinic. Schecter has opened five other clinics across Canada and this will be his first in Edmonton. 

The clinic won't be dispensing pot directly but will be facilitating patients in ordering it from licenced producers.

• Edmonton Marijuana dispensary shut down by police
• Mail order marijuana a challenging problem: police
• Medical marijuana stigma still a hurdle, says cancer patient

Schecter says cannabis can be used to treat a wide variety of conditions.

He said it's mainly used to treat chronic pain which can arise from surgery or cancer, but it also can be used to help patients that suffer from Crohn's disease, ALS, colitis, and other conditions.

The important thing about cannabis is that it can be used in conjunction with many other kinds of medication, he said.  

"The great thing about medical cannabis is that it's a new and novel class of therapy. It targets specific receptors in the body that are really not targeted by any other medication," Schecter said on CBC's Radio Active. 

"In general, this is a very safe medication to be added on to other medications."

A year after MACROS closure

The opening of the clinic comes a little less than a year after an MARCOS, an Edmonton marijuana clinic, was shut down by police. A non-profit, MACROS was run out of the back of an Edmonton hemp shop for over a decade.

Members of ALERT's Green Team shut down the business because it wasn't licensed. Schecter says that his clinic won't directly dispense marijuana, but it will have doctors who know how the drug can work with patients' other treatments.

The doctors at the clinic will help facilitate the process of  mail-ordering medical marijuana from a licensed producer. 

Apart from that, the clinic will work like any other, with patients needing a referral from a personal doctor to get treatment.

Last month, Schecter spoke to 50 area doctors about the clinic.

Doctors reacted positively to the idea of having knowledgeable specialists in the city, he said.

"As a general rule, physicians tend to be not that knowledgeable about medical cannabis," he said. "They understand this is something that may greatly benefit their patients, but they just don't have the knowledge yet to prescribe it.

"We seem to be getting a very favourable response."