A Georgian Bay area family physician is opening a clinic in north Toronto that will specialize in writing patients’ prescriptions for medical marijuana.

Capitalizing on a reluctance by doctors to prescribe cannabis as a medication, Dr. Danial Schecter will open Cannabinoid Medical Clinic, at the corner of Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. E. in May.

“It’s always exciting to be a leader in the field,” says Schecter.“It’s a great way to help people and it’s also, from a financial perspective, a good business opportunity.”

Under new medical marijuana regulations, which take full effect April 1, medical marijuana patients must be prescribed cannabis by a doctor or nurse practitioner, and buy their weed from a licensed commercial grower.

However, many in the medical profession are reluctant to prescribe cannabis and Schecter is not the only one who sees that as a business opportunity. Several referral and walk-in cannabis clinics are expected to open in the near future hoping to supply the demand for medical marijuana.

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Vancouver-based Medicinal Cannabis Resource Centre Inc. (MCRCI), which has for three years provided patients with guidance in marijuana use, is planning two walk-in clinics in Toronto and has future plans to open clinics in Halifax, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton.

MCRCI president Terry Roycroft was recently in Toronto to attend a medical marijuana conference and scout possible locations for clinics. He wants to open the first within two months.

“Doctors are uninformed about the benefits of cannabis because it’s not taught,” says Roycroft. “Doctors who have been in practice for a while do not want to be in that role, they don’t want to be prescribing you something that they don’t know what it’s going to do.”

Under the old regulations, 37,800 Canadians were authorized to possess marijuana — authorizations that were signed by about 7 per cent of Canada’s doctors. More precisely, of Canada’s more than 74,000 physicians, only 5,363 doctors signed authorizations. Nearly half of those cannabis-friendly doctors — 2,228 physicians — are from Ontario.

Canadian Medical Association (CMA) president Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti says the reason so few doctors are comfortable prescribing cannabis is because medicinal benefits aren’t proven. The courts decided on marijuana’s therapeutic role and it didn’t undergo the same rigorous testing that’s customary with other medications.

“Physicians are concerned that this drug is on the market and we really don’t know anything about it,” says Francescutti.

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On Monday, federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose released a media statement addressing concerns by the medical community.

“They want clearer guidance on safety and effectiveness and want authorizations to be monitored,” she said. “That is why I asked Health Canada to consult with provincial and territorial regulatory bodies, companies licensed to produce marijuana and other professional organizations to enhance information-sharing on how doctors and nurse practitioners are authorizing the use of marijuana.”

On Monday, the government also announced it will appeal a recent Federal Court order that granted a temporary injunction to medicinal users, permitting those licensed under the old law to keep growing pot beyond the March 31 deadline. New regulations banning personal production were to begin April1, but a B.C. judge ruled medicinal users could continue growing until a constitutional challenge of the new law was heard.

The injunction was good news for Schecter, who was worried his 2,000 square foot clinic at Yonge and Eglinton, which is currently under construction, would become inundated with patients.

The clinic will offer “cannabinoid therapy,” meaning suitable patients will be prescribed either marijuana or pharmaceutical drugs similar to cannabis, such as Cesamet and Sativex.

An annual fee of between $100 and $200 will cover an education session, where patients learn about different strains of cannabis and how to procure it. Schecter says some licensed producers have told him they will reimburse the fee amount to patients.

The clinic will also provide education sessions to physicians, says Schecter, a former research assistant to Montreal-based Dr. Mark Ware, who is a world-renowned expert on marijuana use for pain.

“There’s a lot of interest and a real desire for knowledge by physicians, but very few people out there are knowledgeable and have experience in prescribing and have the scientific background,” says Schecter.

Similarly, MCRCI charges $300 for a consultation, where patients are given an annual prescription. A tele-medicine consult, via Skype, costs $400. For its physicians, MCRCI has created a reference manual about dosages and strains, based on the 2,500 patients it has dealt with since first opening. It will also hold seminars to educate doctors.

While the opening of pot clinics was “bound to happen,” says the CMA president, he believes there will be consequences.

“You can rest assured,” says Francescutti. “There’s going to be more than one physician who’s going to get disciplined over this.”

Pot and public opinion

It appears about 30 per cent of Canadians may be active pot smokers. That’s according to a series of random public opinion samplings done by Forum Research, which surveyed by telephone 3,663 Canadian adults in late October 2013 and late March 2014. Results based on the total sample are considered accurate within 2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Here are some of the Forum Poll highlights:

13 per cent had admitted they had consumed marijuana in the past year

(17 per cent declined to answer that question)

Of those who said they had tried marijuana:

18 per cent use pot daily or more often

55 per cent consume pot recreationally

11 per cent use it for medical reasons