Marijuana Business Magazine October 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | October 2019 60 AMA President Dr. Patrice Harris reiterated that position in August, saying in a statement: “The AMA has urged legislatures to delay legalizing cannabis until further research is completed on the public health, medical, economic and social consequences of its use.” FDA Approval Key? The British company GW Pharmaceuticals believes most doctors in the future will continue to view medical cannabis products skeptically unless they have FDA approval. In June 2018, the agency approved GW Pharma’s CBD- based syrup Epidiolex for the treatment of certain types of epilepsy. “I don’t think there’s a lot of receptivity by physicians to non-FDA-approved cannabis-based products. I don’t think they see them as having any evidence, and physicians are evidence-based people,” said Stephen Schulz, GW Pharma’s vice president of investor relations. “FDA approval eliminates or reduces dramatically any stigma doctors may associate with cannabis. Physicians see FDA-approved medicines as medicines. The product they’re giving their patients is not CBD; the product they’re giving their patients is Epidiolex.” According to GW Pharma’s quarterly statement issued Aug. 6, 2019, more than 2,500 physicians have prescribed Epidiolex in the United States since it became available on the market in November 2018. Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a palliative care physician on the staff at a Massachusetts General Hospital clinic in the town of Chelsea, outside Boston, disagreed with Schulz. “It’s been used for thousands of years,” Grinspoon said of MMJ. “It obviously works if people are saying that it works. There’s overwhelming anecdotal evidence.” Grinspoon said he recommends medical marijuana free of charge for patients as a part of his practice. “It doesn’t fit into the regulatory framework, because you can’t placebo control it because most people know or would know when they’re stoned. And it costs $200 million to approve a drug on average. Who’s going to do that for cannabis, which you can grow in your backyard?” Growing Physician Interest There is growing evidence that the medical community is taking increased interest in non-FDA-approved cannabis as a potential treatment. While physicians in new markets can be slow to recommend MMJ, reports and statistics from more mature markets such as Nevada and Oregon show that the number of doctors has grown enough over time to relieve any A NewKind of Medical Number of Physicians Plus Patients per Physician in Select Medical Marijuana Markets ■ Physicians 250 2,500 2,461 2,449 ■ Patients per physician - 235 - - - 200 2,000 202 202 191 C: "' - 150 ·o V, 1,496 -� C: 1,500 ..c: "' 1,412 1,408 C. ·o 143 :;; ·� C. ..c: V, 0.. C: - Q) 100 "' 0.. 1,000 101 - 762 72 527 500 - 455 50 394 293 43 - - 0 19 23 0 NY FL MD OR Ml NV OH co PR MA Note: Data are current between April and August 2019 Source: Associated Press, Marijuana Business Factbook Copyright 2019 Marijuana Business Daily, a division of Anne Holland Ventures Inc. All rights reserved.