8 · SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2019 TRIB TOTAL MEDIA
ALTERNATIVE ‘MEDICINE’
STOCK.ADOBE.COM
There are
currently 21
‘serious medical
conditions’
that would
qualify a patient
to receive a
recommendation
to use medical
marijuana.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA 101
Opportunties expanding for those looking for different treatment options
Governor Tom Wolf signed Pennsylvania’s
medical marijuana program into law in
April 2016, and the first dispensary in the
Pittsburgh area opened in Squirrel Hill in
February 2018.
With no fewer than 45 dispensaries now
open across the state, dozens more slated for
opening by the summer and a growing num-ber
of companies to help facilitate obtaining
a medical marijuana card, potential patients
have more options than ever before for ex-ploring
the alternative treatment option.
It’s something that Dr. Bryan Doner of
Compassionate Certification Centers recom-mends
that patients and caregivers should
definitely investigate if they think their
condition or diagnosis could be helped my
medical marijuana.
“There’s so much different information out
there it’s sometimes hard to sift through, but
once you’re considering medial marijuana
as a treatment plan, that’s when I encourage
people to reach out to a provider or a sup-port
agency that is more patient-oriented to
find some information,” he said.
Once an individual decides to begin the
process, the first step to getting a card is to
register through the Pennsylvania Depart-ment
of Health’s website at padohmmp.
custhelp.com/app/login. Patients and/or
caregivers will create a profile by filling out
their name, address and other basic info.
The next step is to get a recommendation
from a doctor certified by the state to evalu-ate
and recommend a patient for medical
marijuana.
As of January 2019 there were 122 doctors
certified to prescribe medical marijuana in
Allegheny County, 19 in Butler County, 18
in Westmoreland County, 10 in Washington
County, seven in Beaver County and four in
Armstrong County, according to the health.
pa.gov website.
Companies such as Compassionate Certi-fication
Centers, which has 10 clinics across
Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, Butler,
Irwin, Kittanning and Natrona Heights,
help patients navigate the process, including
scheduling an exam with a doctor. The cost
is $199 for a medical marijuana card visit,
with a yearly renewal fee of $125.
Doner said that from a continuity of
care standpoint, they encourage patients
to inform their primary care physicians of
their intentions to begin a medical mari-juana
treatment path, however they are not
required to do so.
“It’s the patient’s right at that time to do
so as they choose, and the patient does not
need a referral from a primary care physi-cian,”
he said.
There are currently 21 “serious medical
conditions” that would qualify a patient to
receive a recommendation to use medical
marijuana. They are: amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis, autism, cancer (including remis-sion
therapy), Crohn’s disease, damage to
the nervous tissue of the central nervous sys-tem
(brain-spinal cord) with objective neu-rological
indication of intractable spasticity
and other associated neuropathies, dyskinet-ic
and spastic movement disorders, epilepsy,
glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Huntington’s disease,
inflammatory bowel disease, intractable sei-zures,
multiple sclerosis, neurodegenerative
diseases, neuropathies, opioid use disorder
for which conventional therapeutic interven-tions
are contraindicated or ineffective or
for which adjunctive therapy is indicated in
combination with primary therapeutic inter-ventions,
Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic
stress disorder, severe chronic or intractable
pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic
or intractable pain, sickle cell anemia and
terminal illness.
Doner said approximately 50 percent of
patients they see are seeking help for chronic
pain, while PTSD, autism and seizures are
also common conditions for which patients
BY KAREN PRICE
FOR TRIB TOTAL MEDIA