Yet after just three months of treatment with medical cannabis, Emma is seizure-free and living a more fulfilling and independent life, according to her mother.
Two years ago, Felicia Duncan’s young daughter, Emma, was having almost 70 seizures a week.
The 8-year-old’s epilepsy was so severe, her family was afraid to let her walk on her own for fear she would collapse and injure herself. Duncan said her family tried 17 different seizure medicines — some of which brought harmful, unexpected side effects like kidney damage — but none of them helped.
Yet after just three months of treatment with medical cannabis, Emma is seizure-free and living a more fulfilling and independent life, according to her mother.
“She can ride a bike,” Duncan said. “She can swim in a pool. She can play with her sisters. Things that I never thought would happen.”
Many local families like the Duncans were on hand Monday to celebrate the grand opening of Surterra’s new Pensacola Wellness Center, a medical cannabis dispensary at 5046 Bayou Blvd. The tidy little office sits in a strip mall with a cupcake store, and neatly dressed staff answered questions and filled prescriptions for a steady stream of patients.
The wellness center has already been serving area patients in store and with home deliveries, but U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, and several Surterra executives stopped by to formally celebrate the dispensary’s arrival.
Surterra is one of just two local businesses in Pensacola licensed by the state to offer medical cannabis products. Many patients said they were prescribed the medication for a variety of conditions that include cancer, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.
Jake Bergmann, founder and CEO of Surterra, said he was skeptical about the medicinal value of medical cannabis before he started the business. After being convinced to do some research, Bergmann said he came to believe in the value of medicinal marijuana so much that he put his own savings into launching Surterra.
“We’re doing something that’s fundamentally good for people,” Bergmann said. “We’re saving lives.”
Gaetz said he was inspired to push for medical marijuana legislation after hearing too many stories of citizens whose health and quality of life suffered because they didn’t have access to treatment, or because they were prescribed medicines that were addictive or carried harmful side effects.
“I fought for it in Florida,” Gaetz said. “It’s now legal in Florida. The next step is to make sure we don’t have policies at the federal level that stop the type of innovation we’re seeing in Pensacola today.”
Gaetz has authored a bill that would change medical cannabis from a Schedule I drug, on par with heroin, to a Schedule III drug. The change would mean the federal government could do more research of medicinal cannabis, as well as make it more accessible and better regulated.
“The federal government has been lying to the American people for a generation about cannabis,” Gaetz said. “They’ve said it has no medical value. But just here today, we’ve seen people who used to be wheelchair-bound that are now off and moving around. We’ve seen people who have … enhanced quality of life because of medical cannabis, and they’ve done so without side effects and without a lot of the negatives consequences that come from opioid use.”
Surterra offers tincture oils, sprays, lotions and vaporizer pens to people who have been prescribed medical marijuana by a state qualified physician and who have successfully applied to Florida’s Medical Marijuana Use Registry.
Insurance providers don’t cover Surterra’s products, but staff said they work to make the products accessible through competitive pricing. For example, a vaporizing pen costs $25, includes everything users need and last for 10 days.
More information on Surterra’s products in available at surterra.com, and general guidance on medical cannabis guidelines is available through the Florida Department of Health.
By Kevin Robinson – Pensacola News Journal
Photo Credit – Jody Link/[email protected]