Is medical marijuana right for you? Concerns about the medicine addressed

Interest in medical marijuana in Northwest Florida skyrocketed this week after the first dispensary opened its doors.

Dr. Michelle Beasley at the Medical Cannabis Clinic of Florida said many people have concerns about using the drug to treat their illnesses.

One of her patients is Channel 3 producer Brett Haskell.

Haskell was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in November and has plenty of questions about how medical marijuana could help him.

He's following up at the clinic 90 days after first asking about medical marijuana.

Under the law, he had to wait that amount of time to build a relationship with Dr. Beasley before she could prescribe the medicine for the first time.

Haskell said, "I was kind of concerned with the 90 days and my time period of getting the cancer cured and going through chemo."

He's gone through chemo and researched medical cannabis to see if it would help with the side effects of his treatment.

"They have other drugs out there that they have for me right now, which is dealing with the nausea and it gives your drowsiness," Haskell said. "There was another one I actually had an allergic reaction to."

Dr. Beasley said many people are worried about taking the medicine and going through their normal everyday lives. She said cannabis use is very patient specific.

The same dosage doesn't work for everyone.

"Some strains are more, make you sleepy. Other ones are more energizing so depending on the type of illness, the age of the patient, their exposure to cannabis in the past, that can all change how much medical cannabis I would start using," Dr. Beasley said.

There's a wide range of medical cannabis from non-euphoric Cannabidiol (CBD) to others that can make you high containing high levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

She said prescribing both is important because they work well together.

Dr. Beasley said, "Having CBD around you gets your own medical benefits from the CBD, but CBD actually helps keep the THC in check so patients can benefit from the medical properties of THC without having to have the side effects."

The end goal is to help patients like Haskell live better lives without pain or suffering.

"All the patients I've seen, their goal is to be more functional in their life," Dr Beasley said.

Haskell is waiting for a required registry card before he can actually go buy medical marijuana.

Dr. Beasley has over 100 patients on the registry and at least double that currently in the 90-day waiting period.

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Is medical marijuana right for you? Concerns about the medicine ... - WEAR