Ottawa’s first centre for access to medical marijuana is now open. The centre located in the Hintonburg neighbourhood is owned by National Access Cannabis, a company which provides education and guidance with physician and pharmacist support for legal access to Health Canada’s Medical Marijuana program.
“We are excited to give Ottawa residents the resources and professional guidance needed to access Health Canada’s legal medical cannabis program safely and responsibly with pharmacist and physician support,” said Gulwant Bajwa, CEO of National Access Cannabis.
Members wishing to use this service are connected with a physician for a medical assessment and NAC will help with selecting a licensed producer and submitting the required Health Canada medical documents.
Todd Marcotte, who lives in Ottawa, is familiar with NAC having used its services in British Columbia. He was prescribed cannabis infused cream for the osteoarthritis in both in knees. Marcotte says before NAC he suffered a great deal of pain.
“The only way I could alleviate that pain was over the counter kid of A525 types of things or applying a hot and cold press, which took a lot of time and the A535 didn’t really work and of course ingesting heavy pain pills like Advil on a regular basis,” says Marcotte.
NAC is in the expansion process with care centres planned in cities across Canada. The Ottawa location is the second care centre following Victoria, BC in January of 2015. So far 3000 people have applied for a medical marijuana card at that location. Here in Ottawa, organizers are hoping to equal or better results.
