People looking for marijuana to alleviate their medical conditions can now seek a prescription through a Thunder Bay clinic.

THUNDER BAY -- A medical marijuana clinic on Thursday will open in Thunder Bay.

Canadian Cannabis Clinics (CCC), the country's largest network of medical clinics specializing in cannabis, has chosen the city for its 20th location, joining 16 others across Ontario and two in Alberta.

In preparation for the opening, the company held an information on Monday evening for approximately 25 Thunder Bay doctors.

The clinics assess people to determine if marijuana is suitable for treating their medical conditions before issuing a doctor's prescription which patients may then present to a licensed producer.

CCC co-founder Ronan Levy told tbnewswatch.com clients ideally will be referred to the clinic by their family doctor or specialist.

However, since many doctors are not comfortable with marijuana as a treatment, Ronan said the clinic can obtain a copy of clients' medical records from their doctors, and assess the patient's need before deciding whether to issue a prescription.

"We don't see patients where it's a clear situation where cannabis would not be appropriate. For instance, if you're an 18-year-old who's seeking cannabis for chronic back pain, our doctors are very unlikely to prescribe it in those circumstances."

The Thunder Bay location is at 2813 East Arthur St.

Levy said the city is one of the largest communities currently without a cannabis clinic, and its population "is generally well-suited to cannabis as a treatment option, in that a lot of people have chronic health conditions."

He added CCC had been receiving numerous requests from Thunder Bay residents asking about access to a clinic.

The lead physician at the company's clinic in London, Ont.— Dr. Jonas Vanderzwan — spoke in the city Monday night at a doctors-only gathering. The invitation to physicians described the event as an opportunity to discuss the potential role of cannabis in patients with pain and other chronic conditions, understand cannabis pharmacology and its physiologic affects, and develop assessment, monitoring and risk reduction strategies for safe and rational prescribing, particularly in patients already on opioids.

Levy said that to the extent CCC "can educate doctors to the point where they feel comfortable prescribing, we consider that a success."

He added the company aims, as well, to establish its own credibility, because there's "a lot of public perception" that people can just go to a clinic, pay for a prescription and get access to recreational marijuana under the guise of medical marijuana, but "that's just not the case at all."

Levy said if CCC can help local physicians identify the circumstances in which cannabis can be an effective therapeutic treatment option, then "that's a win for us, it's a win for the local doctors, it's a win for their patients."