Shoppers’ Online Medical Cannabis Consultations Changes the Game
Shoppers Drug Mart Expands Program Across Canada – LPC
Shoppers Drug Mart expanded its online medical cannabis consultations to most provinces and territories to favourable response. Dr. Paul Daeninck, an oncologist in Manitoba who sits on Shoppers’ advisory board, said the service will guide patients.
“Often patients are coming in to see me with their product,” said Dr. Daeninck. “They’re saying to me, ‘What is this, how do I use it, my cousin, my grandson, my neighbour told me about using this, what am I supposed to do with it?’ They have no guidance.”
Shoppers’ online medical cannabis consultations offer that guidance.
“For years, I’ve talked about using pharmacists as a good ally when you’re talking about medical cannabis,” he said. “They haven’t been allowed to do very much about it… I think this is something that will be a benefit to all.”
Online medical cannabis consultations could be a game changer. Patients currently don’t have access to good information because their doctors have concerns about cannabis risks and benefits. That makes getting a cannabis prescription more difficult. Even CBD remedies are slow to gain acceptance. It’s a catch-22: doctors want more research to make information decisions, but restrictions are hampering cannabis research.
Online Medical Cannabis Consultations Help Patients Make Informed Decisions – LPC
Although doctors’ hesitance about prescribing cannabis is understandable, patients need a source of reliable, evidence-based information. Shoppers’ telemedicine services connect patients with health providers,explain the different cannabis options, and get their medical document. At the very least, patients can avoid the hit-or-miss self-medication game.
“When you go into one of those (recreational) stores, you have a budtender, and it’s kind of like going to a bartender,” Dr. Daeninck said. “They don’t have the experience; they don’t know what they’re talking about in terms of medical cannabis.”
The telemedicine option is also great for those living in rural and remote communities.
According to the Shoppers Drug Mart website, online medical cannabis consultations are free. Currently, telemedicine consultation services are not available in Quebec, Alberta, or the Yukon, but registration services are. Shoppers states on its website that it is “working hard to be able to support all Canadian patients soon.” The site also lists nearby cannabis clinics, searchable by city and postal code for all regions of Canada.
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