EXCLUSIVE: Medical cannabis clinics to open in Montreal

It’s been less than one month since Marc Emery, the man known as the Prince of Pot, came to Montreal to open cannabis dispensaries.

Another man is now on a mission to make his mark in the medical marijuana world by opening three cannabis clinics in the Montreal area.

But it’s an operation the Quebec College of Physicians is calling illegal.

“They call themselves clinics but it’s not really a medical clinic, it’s a providing centre to cannabis,” Dr. Yves Robert from the Quebec College of Physicians said.

But the man behind the new cannabis clinics insists he has nothing to hide.

“I welcome the police to come in,” Antonio Bramante, co-founder of Natures Decision, said. “We’ve reached out to local politicians and the mayor – we want to make them part of a board.

“We’re not a recreational outfit, we’re strictly medical!”

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The way Bramante’s operation will work is that patients wanting to access medical marijuana will be connected to a physician online, off-site.

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The goal is to get around the waiting lists and strict guidelines at conventional clinics like Sante Cannabis.

Bramante suggested it will also allow patients to avoid playing by the rules when it comes to participating in the province’s mandatory cannabis registry.

“We encourage them to participate in the study,” Bramante said. “But it’s the patient’s choice.”

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The operation already has two out-of-province doctors on board and hopes to recruit more.

“These are compassionate doctors from other provinces – mainly Ontario – that are trying to help us take care of our patients here in Quebec,” Bramante said.

An estimated 3,000 Quebecers have prescriptions for medical marijuana.

Some patients already use Skype and other applications to access prescriptions, but the difference with Natures Decision is that people on-site will help patients navigate the sometimes bumpy road to gathering their medical files and finding a physician willing to prescribe pot.

But according to the Quebec College of Physicians, it’s an illegal operation that has no business in Quebec.

“It is something we don’t recommend,” Robert said.

“It is something that is not good medical practice in our view.”

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Robert explained every province’s college of physicians agreed that using telemedicine was not an acceptable practice, especially when it comes to cannabis.

But unless they know the exact name and location of doctors, it’s hard to crack down on the approach.

“If we hear about a physician doing this kind of Skype prescription, if we know the name of the physicians, there will surely be a transmission of the information to the proper college,” Dr. Robert said.

Natures Decision will open its first location this week with two others in Ville St-Laurent and on Montreal’s south shore next week.