Green Point Wellness Helps Community Understand Medicinal Cannabis Industry Coming To Maryland

A new industry is coming to Maryland, and its first location is expected to be right here in Anne Arundel County. It might face some skepticism or even opposition, but the leadership behind Green Point Wellness — a medicinal cannabis dispensary slated to open in late 2017 — wants to educate people and create a positive image as they promote overall health and provide high-quality products in a safe environment.

“If this were a plant found in the Amazon jungle today, it would be revered as the miracle cure,” said Dr. Debra Kimless, medical director of ForwardGro, a Maryland-based grower of medical cannabis. “But because this has been vilified, all the information has been squelched.”

To help the community better understand the medical cannabis industry, Green Point Wellness held an educational seminar on Monday, June 5, when Anne Arundel County residents could hear from leaders in the field, including Kimless along with Dominic Cucina, a Green Point team member who began his career in Denver, Colorado, where he gained first-hand knowledge of working with medicinal cannabis and clients.

Cucina explained that a dispensary is not exactly a pharmacy and not exactly a store. At Green Point Wellness, a dispensary agent will work with customers one on one to find the right mode of administration — all the customer needs is proper ID and a recommendation from a doctor that they have a condition that could benefit from medicinal cannabis.

“We aren’t medical professionals like someone from the pharmaceutical field,” Cucina said. “Culturally, a dispensary is very different. It’s very personal. It’s private. Someone can talk to a dispensary agent without having to feel like people are waiting right behind them, and it allows people to be a little more open. It takes away anxiety from the people who might be apprehensive to walk in in the first place.”

Green Point Wellness will offer products that correspond with each of three modes of administration — inhalation, through smoking or vaporizing; transdermals (under the tongue), for patients who cannot or prefer not to smoke; and topicals, such as ointments or lotions to alleviate pain.

“The choices we have are more or less up to the customer,” said team member George Oakes. “They’re not coming in with a prescription; they’re coming in with a doctor’s recommendation. The dispensary agents will guide them to what products they recommend they use. The dispensary agents make it very comfortable for clients to choose their product that fits their specific needs instead of a pharmacy giving them what a doctor tells them they need.”

But people should not expect that those who use cannabis for medicinal treatments will be experiencing the high that would come from using it recreationally, as Kimless explained. “When you’re using it medicinally, you’re starting out at a very low dose and you’re increasing it slowly, so the incidence of psychoactivity … is very, very low,” she said.

Oakes encourages people who are skeptical or who have reservations to look at the research about medicinal cannabis. “Educate yourself,” he said. “Listen to testimonials of people in real-world situations who have benefitted from medical cannabis. … We’re hoping to open by November 1 of this year.” For more information or to contact the team, visit www.gpwellness.com.

“We’re doing this the right way. [Medicinal cannabis] doesn’t have the negative stigma that once existed,” Cucina concluded. “We’re providing medicine for people who need it.”