LAKELAND — Dr. Aida Cuascut-Reyes says she’s haunted by the screams of a patient whose rectal cancer caused such excruciating pain that not even morphine could ease her suffering.
Cuascut-Reyes wishes the woman had lived long enough to be treated with medical marijuana. Based on her experience with other patients, the doctor thinks it might have lessened the woman’s misery.
After practicing in Brandon for decades, Cuascut-Reyes will be the primary doctor at a new Lakeland clinic specializing in the use of marijuana as a treatment method. The Lakeland office is the ninth and newest operated by Medical Marijuana Treatment Clinics of Florida, a company based in Tallahassee.
The clinic, located at 5 Imperial Blvd., Suite A-12, is scheduled to begin seeing patients Thursday. It will be the first medical facility in Polk County devoted to medical-marijuana treatment.
Cuascut-Reyes became eligible in November to order the treatment for patients. She has been recommending the drug for patients at her Brandon office.
“I have a lot of patients with a lot of needs that can be addressed by medical marijuana that they didn’t have a choice before,” Cuascut-Reyes said.
Florida voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment in November allowing the use of marijuana to treat symptoms of debilitating ailments. Doctors must complete a training program overseen by the Florida Department of Health before they can write orders enabling patients to obtain the drug.
About 20 doctors based in Polk County have done the state training, according to a list posted on the website of the Office of Medical Marijuana Use.
The state initially awarded licenses to five companies, allowing them to produce and dispense cannabis-based medications. That number expanded amid legal challenges, and GrowHealthy, a company based in Lake Wales, is now among nine license holders.
That number is expected to nearly double by the end of the year.
Medical Marijuana Treatment Clinics of Florida has no affiliation with any of the dispensing organizations, said Dr. Joseph Dorn, the company’s chief medical officer.
No medical-marijuana dispensaries have opened yet in Polk County. Outlets are operating in Tampa and Orlando, and some dispensaries offer home delivery.
Medical Marijuana Treatment Clinics of Florida operates offices in Jacksonville, Fort Walton Beach, Miami, Longwood, Pensacola, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and The Villages.
Cuascut-Reyes, a family practitioner, said her current patients have such conditions as cancer, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and chronic pain from various sources. She said she also treats patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s a wide range, but it needs to be wider,” she said of the conditions eligible for treatment with medical marijuana under Florida law. “It doesn’t cure the problem, but it helps patients be able to live during that time.”
The doctor said she has seen measurable improvements in patients who use marijuana.
“This is an adjunct therapy, alongside of all the other therapies,” she said.
Cuascut-Reyes said some of her current patients are from Lakeland.
Dorn works out of the company’s Tallahassee office but said he travels to its other clinics. He said he expects to spend some time in the Lakeland office.
Dorn said he worked as a hospice physician for 12 years before joining Medical Marijuana Treatment Clinics of Florida. He said many of his hospice patients used marijuana on their own to relieve pain and other symptoms of terminal illnesses.
The average age of patients at the company’s clinics is 53, Dorn said, and his oldest patient is 101.
“Lakeland is going to be an interesting market,” he said by phone from Tallahassee. “I have no idea what the disease demographics are.”
The Florida Legislature in 2014 passed a law allowing use of a tincture derived from marijuana plants bred to be low in THC, the compound that causes psychological effects. The law restricted use of the cannabis oil to treating just a few conditions, most notably severe epilepsy.
The Legislature expanded the range of conditions to be treated with cannabis oil in 2016, and the amendment approved last fall by voters lists HIV, AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis among the ailments eligible for treatment, along with unspecified debilitating conditions with similar symptoms.
The law approved by voters does not limit the level of THC in the marijuana used by patients.
credit:theledger.com