Ever since she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 16, Rebecca Fogel has been in and out of the hospital. She was prescribed opioids to manage her pain and eventually became dependent on them.
One physician she saw had previously worked at Santé Cannabis and suggested she try medical marijuana to manage the pain without opioids. That referral, the 28-year-old says, changed her life.
“We structured a treatment plan that was personalized for myself and since then I haven’t had to use opioids unless in crisis.”
But not everyone will have access to the care Fogel says “saved her life.” Santé Cannabis is in trouble and just announced it will not take on any new patients due to a lack of funding.
The organization, which provides patients with resources on where to find and how to use medicinal cannabis, has relied on public funding and private grants from marijuana companies up until now. But with the pandemic hitting the pot industry hard, companies started pulling their grants – leaving Santé Cannabis dry.
“We had to scale down our staff to be able to focus on the continuation of care to our current patients,” said Erin Prosk, president and co-founder of Santé Cannabis.
“That means thousands of patients across Quebec will not be able to have access to health-care professionals to support the safe and effective use of cannabis for therapeutic reasons.”
Providing expertise but not products
Santé Cannabis is the only no-fee medical cannabis service covered by Quebec’s…
