Common sense prevails, we are treating this plant like every other medication.
A little history lesson...
Floridas Health Department has struggled to make headway with cannabis patients since its inception in 2015 after Amendment 2. It was slow to setup, slow to add edibles, flower, and other routes of delivery. When I first got my card back in 2016 it was pages of documents hand written, a 2x2 passport photo glued on the front, a certified check, and a scanned copy of my license. 4 months later I got my approval and card in the mail. Hurray... for patients with debilitating conditions 4 months might as well be forever.
Then we entered a new phase in 2018 with the adoption of the online registry, now the OMMU was really trying hard with their tiny office in Tampa to fulfill requests for card approvals by more than 200,000 Floridians and snow birds. This system did bring us into the age of technology allowing for approximately 8-14 day approval times. This is still disappointing when you go through an entire consult with a physician, come up with a treatment plan, and give the patient hope. Only to tell them they may or may not be approved for a medicine you prescribed in 8-14 days.
Today a new light shines upon all Floridians!
Finally; we have caught up to most other MMJ states. This morning we noticed some basic updates when we logged into our provider portal, but didn't think anything of it as that's pretty standard. Then we had a gentleman come in for an appointment, we went through our usual routine, got him all setup on the health department website, and when he submitted his payment to the OMMU he got an email almost instantaneously. It was an Approval email from the State of Florida Health Department!
This may not seem like a big deal to some, but to a patient who is truly suffering knowing they can take the advice and information they received from us straight to a dispensary is a huge relief. They can start that same evening. This is common sense, since of course we can send prescriptions for much more potent, and dangerous drugs to any pharmacy for same day pickup. This is safer medicine with a 0 on the associated overdose risk score chart.
We are very happy with this new development and think most physicians will agree that the OMMU and State of Florida are heading in the right direction at this point.
We would like to extend our gratitude on behalf of our 5000+ patients to the Office of Medical Marijuana Use, The Florida Department of Health, Nikki Freid (Dept. of Agriculture) and Governor DeSantis for keeping with the will of the people, we know none of this would be possible without you. Thank you for the hard work you put in day after day.
Thanks for Reading!
Zaq Wilson & Jennifer Guthrie R.N., M.D.
Owners of MedClub® Palm Beach
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