An executive with the planned medical marijuana dispensary in Bradford will be in town this weekend to answer questions from patients.
Dr. Glen Mesaros will give a public presentation starting at 11 a.m. Saturday at Beefeaters Restaurant, 27 Congress St. Mesaros is the chief medical officer of DuBois Wellness Center LLC, which is expecting its pharmacy to be ready to open by the end of March in the former Mexican restaurant at 109 Main St.
“(This presentation will be) full of info for patients on how to take advantage of the PA Medical Marijuana program,” said Mesaros, who is also with Melnick, Moffitt & Mesaros ENT Associates of Lebanon.
Several conditions would be allowed to be treated with medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, autism, cancer, Crohn’s disease, damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Huntington’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease, intractable seizures, multiple sclerosis, neuropathies, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle cell anemia or severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is rejected or ineffective.
Officials at Bradford Regional Medical Center have no plans for providers to prescribe medical marijuana, said hospital spokeswoman Janene Dunn.
“The doctor situation is the bottleneck across the state. Well over 600 physicians have registered with the Department of Health but we will need more,” Mesaros said, calling counties like McKean underrepresented.
“We are planning physician meetings to get the word out to providers on how this medicine will greatly alleviate symptoms with their patients,” he said. “The best thing patients can do is talk to their doctors and show there is a significant interest.”
The Medical Marijuana Program became effective May 17, 2016, and is expected to be fully implemented this year. The floor space for the Bradford dispensary will be just under 2,000 square feet, Mesaros said, initially, there will be seven to 10 employees.
