Venice – It took less than an hour for 50 people to sign up for an appointment with the Compassionate Cannabis Care Clinic of Venice, when its full website went live Thursday afternoon.
By 9 a.m. Friday, the clinic had 146 people scheduled for their first appointment, said Patrick DeLuca, executive director of the clinic, which will be operated by Dr. Barry M. Gordon.
"Our first week is completely booked," DeLuca said. "We’re seeing 90 patients and they’re still coming in."
Gordon will start seeing patients Jan. 3, the same day Amendment 2 – which expands the permitted use of medical marijuana for patients with debilitating condition – takes effect.
On Jan. 4, Gordon is booked solid, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with 23 patients. The same is true for Jan. 5. The only reason he’s not booked the same way on Jan. 3 is that DeLuca blocked off three hours for patients in Gordon’s laser tattoo removal business.
"I’m going to work my ass off on the next 6 to 8 months to see every single patient that wants to be seen," said the 60-year-old Gordon, who spent 32 years in emergency medicine before retiring to Venice in 2015.
He operates a tattoo removal and a telehealth business in the Lake View Office Park, 411 Commercial Court off of Jacaranda Boulevard, east of the city. He also offers consultation through a web page, AskDrBarry.com.
DeLuca said that, because of the overwhelming response, the practice may hire a medical assistant or physician’s assistant before the end of the year, so they can be trained in time for Jan. 3. If demand continues to rise, Gordon may even add another physician to the practice part-time.
To answer questions about the practice, Gordon and DeLuca will host a Facebook live chat at 5 p.m. Saturday on the clinic’s page.
After a patient undergoes a complete physical exam, which costs about $250, Gordon evaluates their health history and determines if cannabis therapy is an option.
Under the current law, patients must be established within the practice for 90 days and must schedule regular check-up visits each 45 days after the first visit to maintain compliance.
That means that the patient Gordon sees in January would have to wait until April to be prescribed medical marijuana for their ailments.
"We can only do what we can do in qualifying our patients as early as they can be, when the state’s ready for it," Gordon said.
In the interim, Gordon said, he plans to urge patients to study up on the therapy.
"They should read," Gordon said. "We’re going to give them resources to read, make sure they know that there’s a lot of information out there."
Gordon admitted that he, too, has had to become a scholar as he starts this specialty practice.
"Now that I’m entering the world of compassionate cannabis care, the research and the reading – I’m like a student again," he said, then added that he’s relying heavily on the body of knowledge developed in California, where physicians have been prescribing medical marijuana since 1996.
In Florida, the state Legislature has six months from Jan. 3 to put into place guidelines that will govern the prescription, use and dispensation of medical marijuana.
No cannabis will be dispensed at the clinic. Patients would have to go to a dispensary to fill a prescription. The two closest dispensaries are in Clearwater and Tampa, though zoning laws in both Sarasota County and the city of North Port allow for dispensaries to open.
Twelve physicians in the region – six in Sarasota County and three each in Manatee and Charlotte counties – have passed the qualification test with the Florida Department of Health Office of Compassionate Use that will allow them to prescribe medical marijuana.
Gordon, a graduate of the Ohio State University Medical School, has been the most active in promoting the specialty.
DeLuca attributed that partly to his experience in marketing and Gordon’s undergraduate degree in communications. Even while serving as an emergency physician at Alliance Community Hospital in Alliance, Ohio, Gordon was a regular on television and radio.
In addition to the marketing savvy, DeLuca stressed that the Compassionate Cannabis Care Clinic of Venice will be a specialty practice.
"We’re not your primary care physician," he added. "We’re not going to see you on a regular basis when you have an issue.
"There’s nobody, at least on this coast, who are operating the way that we are."
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Appointment Registry Booms At Venice Cannabis Clinic
Author: Earle Kimel
Contact: (941) 361-4800
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Herald-Tribune
