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Cannabis Corner

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By JOHN SINGLETON

In an interview with Robert Hannum, DO, one of Marijuana Doctor's leading physicians, I asked about his practice and the patients he works with. Hannum currently sees patients out of two of Marijuana Doctor's offices. Their Orlando facility is located across from the University of Central Florida, and also their Clearwater facility is located on the west coast.

How long have you been a physician?

I've been a practicing physician for 29 years. I graduated medical school in Philadelphia in 1987 and then came to Tampa to do my internship. I stayed for a year and fell in love with Florida, so I never went back to Pennsylvania. I've been practicing as a family practitioner in Florida since.

When and why did you decide to start doing medical marijuana evaluations?

Generally, I was doing alternative medicine since 1997 which made me open to alternative types of therapies. However, with the financial crisis of 2008, most of the alternative medicine and weight loss clinics went out of business because most people couldn't really afford any type of non-necessary medical care. I was doing mainly long-term care AKA geriatrics for a lot of the patients who were having classic issues such as sun-downing, poor appetite, and anxiety. I was always of a mind, only half joking at the time, but what would happen if we could be able to give them medical marijuana. When the process started in terms of the amendments in Florida, I was looking forward to doing that but generally it's tough to do any type of medical marijuana long-term care because they're still incumbent upon federal funds and they're little reluctant to do so at this time. I decided to open up an office practice, which really didn't tend to do all that well, so I was more than happy when I was able to start working with the Marijuana Doctor corporation in November of last year.

What does the typical patient you see suffer from?

Although there are nine qualifying conditions listed and chronic pain most of those are relatively rare, so the majority of our patients come from either those with PTSD and with a chronic pain syndrome. I will say that psychiatrists still believe that PTSD by necessity needs to come from battlefield trauma, but I think there's a variety of things such as the sudden loss of a loved one and being told you have a potentially fatal illness apply here. I also think generally that the school system is producing a lot of people with PTSD. I would say that PTSD probably equals about 60 percent of the number of patients compared to that of chronic pain, but they are by far the two major illnesses we qualify for.

How have you seen patients' lives changed by the medicine?

By and large I think the patients' lives are benefited so much more than I, or I think most people, could have even thought. You know in terms of what we're talking about in those two illnesses, very frequently patients tell me they're actually nightmare free now. People with pain get significant to remarkable improvement in pain even more so than your typical patient with herniated discs and muscle spasms. We've had patients with diabetic neuropathy and fibromyalgia, who even with a high dose of our standard of therapeutics such as Gabapentin and Lyrica don't get relief, that people are saying with the proper strain, get 100 percent relief of their pain.

What would you tell fellow physicians who are on the fence about referring patients to us and for medical marijuana in general?

In terms of what I would tell other physicians, I would just say that to me it's an eye-opening experience. Science is being done every day which shows more and more the safety of medical marijuana as well as the possibility that it's going to be efficacious in a variety of illnesses and diseases which we had never foreseen. I suggest that they open their practice to referrals or even qualifying patients themselves.

John Singleton is the marketing manager for MarijuanaDoctor.com, a medical marijuana recommendation clinic, providing qualified medical recommendations to patients seeking a Medical Marijuana Use Registry Card in the state of Florida. With more than 15 locations throughout the state and Florida's first and only Medical Marijuana Clinic and CBD Dispensary, Marijuana Doctor seeks to make the process for medical marijuana approval as simple and stress-free as possible for new patients. For more information, please visit https://marijuanadoctor.com