With nearly a month to go until new cannabis legalization laws come into effect in the country, Denise Ropp sees increasing opportunities for her business.
Ropp owns GrowWise Health in the Comox Valley, an educational and medical office that helps provide personalized medical cannabis education to help achieve health goals and improve quality of life.
Once the purchase, use and possession of cannabis becomes legal Oct. 17, Ropp said she believes more - not fewer - people will come through her door.
“We have an extra understanding about the products and offer a lot of medical support - (the doctors) are specialists,” she explained.
The office, located at 2-3322 Comox Road, is a physician-referral and self-referral clinic. Once the clinic has received supporting medical documentation, an assessment is performed by a physician, who determines if medical cannabis is an appropriate treatment.
If prescribed, a patient will have access to personalized education services with a nurse, who can assist in facilitating registration, ordering medication with a Health Canada Licenced Producer and provide education services (strains, dosages, modes or administration).
Health Canada said regardless of the legalization law, they will maintain a distinct system to provide patients with reasonable access to cannabis for medical purposes. Under the new Cannabis Act, individuals will still be able to purchase cannabis directly from a federally-licensed producer, register to produce a limited amount of cannabis for their own medical purposes and designate someone to produce it for them.
While Ropp said a prescription can be obtained by some doctors, many facilities don’t offer support or sometimes patients are unaware how many milligrams to take at a time.
“Three-hundred and twenty-five milligrams of Aspirin is not the equivalent to 325 milligrams of medical cannabis. There is a sweet spot, and everyone is different. What works for some patients doesn’t work for others.”
Ropp estimated GrowWise Health services 30 to 40 clients a week, with patients from Victoria to Bella Bella. She said there are many people who are interested in trying medical cannabis, but many are worried about THC.
“Most people come through the door and say ‘I don’t want to get high.’ There are so many other components that have medicinal value.”
Currently, Ropp explained she is looking to see how she can offer a bigger service and is looking at a telehealth service as a possible option along with ‘pop-up’ options, particularly for those patients who have to travel.
For more information, visit growwisehealth.com or call 250-941-4999.