CCB MEDIA PHOTOS
Canna Care Docs in Dennis holds an open house Saturday, May 2, to give free services to veterans wanting to obtain a medical marijuana card.
YARMOUTH – Michele Olem, a substance abuse counselor in Wellfleet, traveled to the Mid-Cape Saturday with her husband with two stops in mind.
First they went to Canna Care Docs on Route 134 in South Dennis, which was having an open house for veterans, offering free medical marijuana qualifying paperwork.
Next they traveled one town away to the Cape’s first Cannibis Convention, which was held at the Colonial Inn on Route 6A in Yarmouthport.
Olem’s husband, a Vietnam veteran, has cancer.
“He lost 30 pounds in one month. He couldn’t stand the sight of food,” Olem said.
Using medical marijuana has helped him to regain his appetite. “He put back on all the weight,” she said.
Her husband prefers marijuana to using some of the drugs prescribed by his doctor, she said, because they have a range of unpleasant side effects.
More than 300 people attended the Cape’s first Cannabis Convention, which was held at the Colonial Inn in Yarmouthport.
“I first tried it in Vietnam. [With the cancer], I lost a lot of weight. It helped me to eat and took my mind off a lot of stuff,” he said.
Their friend, Tony Hill of Wellfleet, who came along on the trip, said using medical marijuana has a range of benefits for people battling cancer. “It helps settle your stomach. He helps you to eat and it eases the pain,” he said.
But Olem said when she met with her peer group of fellow counselors that morning, there were people both for and against medical marijuana.
Like any drug, she said, there is a problem with people getting addicted. And being an addiction counselor, she knows well about the problems of substance abuse. She works with many opiate addicts.
The problem of addiction is close to home, even in Wellfleet. In a wooded area of Wellfleet where she and her husband like to walk, a neighbor recently found a bunch of needles used by intravenous drug users.
Olem and her husband were among more than 300 people who, organizers said, attended the Cannibis Convention at the Colonial Inn.
Also at the convention was Nancy Valentino of Plymouth, who came to the Colonial Inn with her husband Fred, after hearing about the conference on the radio.
CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Nancy Valentino and her husband Fred are approached by Jim Thomas, who tells them about his medical marijuana services.
Fred, who is also a Vietnam veteran, has multiple sclerosis. He has a medical marijuana card that enables him to get 10 ounces of marijuana every 60 days, Valentino said.
He said the drug helps him by numbing the pain of his disease. “The inflammation, it burns,” he said.
The two were among the first to arrive at the Cannabis Convention. While there, they were approached by Jim Thomas, who helps people obtain medical marijuana and makes “edibles and medibles” from his own recipes for people who do not want to smoke the drug.
His formula, he said, is 8 ounces of glycerine to 8 grams of medical marijuana. “That’s your basic recipe,” he said. He said he varies the recipe depending on what strength of the drug the customer prefers.
“Medical marijuana is a beta blocker for cancer. Most doctors know that, but they can’t say it,” Thomas said.
Vendors get ready for customers at the Cape’s first Cannabis Conference Saturday at the Colonial Inn.
Thomas of West Bridgewater, is a disabled veteran and also an ordained pastor who performs marriage ceremonies, specializing in “traditional, non-traditional and alternate lifestyle” services, according to his business card.
Marijuana, he said, has helped him with “cluster headaches” that he has had for years.
He said his business now operates in a “gray area” because the state has been slow to license medical marijuana facilities. He said he has had numerous conversations with staff in the Attorney General’s office and the state’s Department of Public Health about the medical marijuana business and has gotten different answers depending on who takes the call.
”It’s a total mess,” he said of the state’s process on medical marijuana.
Among the vendors at the conference was GoodFellas Smoke Shop in Buzzards Bay.
Michael Maloney, the chief legal counsel of Canna Care Docs, which held the open house in Dennis for veterans, said they decided to offer free services to veterans after hearing from a number of people who said they could not afford the $200 sign up.
“A lot of veterans had that concern. We wanted to find a way to cater to them,” Maloney said.
About three hours into the Canna Care event, Marta Downing, COO of Canna Care Docs, with the waiting room filled to standing-room-only capacity, said the open house had a steady flow of patients throughout the morning and they were expecting around 50 people during the course of the day.
“A woman left today with a qualifying condition certified from her doctor. She said she had been waiting 30 years to have safe access [to medical marijuana], so we’re really pleased,” Downing said.
Jo-Ann Bellanti of Pot Pocket shows her wares to a potential customer at the Cannabis Convention.
Downing said they had veterans from the current conflict in Afghanistan all the way back to World War II, looking to get medical marijuana paperwork processed.
The usual fee for Canna Care’s process, which is the first step toward getting a medical marijuana card, is $200, Downing said.
Canna Care’s process, Downing said, is to look at medical paperwork from the patient to determine whether they have one of the qualifying conditions to be certified.
The patient then meets with one of Canna Care’s practitioners about their condition.
If they are found to have one of the qualifying conditions, Canna Care gives them a pin number so that they can apply to the state for a medical marijuana card. The state issues the cards for a $50 fee, though, Downing said, the state has a hardship exemption for those who cannot afford the fee.
Robert Munro is the organizer of the Cape’s first Cannabis Convention.
Back at the Cannabis Convention at the Colonial Inn, about 150 people were lined up in the full parking lot to pay the $15 cash admission fee at the start time of 2 p.m.
The convention’s organizer Robert Munro said the turnout was looking to surpass 300 people over the course of the event.
Near the beginning of the event, two plainclothes police officers from the Yarmouth Police Department walked through the event, Munro said.
There were two rooms just off the main conference room area that were set aside for people to medicate and within an hour, a strong smell of marijuana filled the conference room. The conference area also spilled out to an outdoor grassy area where more vendors were offering displays.
The vendors offered a range of products from smoking accoutrements from GoodFellas Smoke Shop in Buzzards Bay, to a company selling marijuana calendars—Miss June was on hand greeting conventioneers—to Pot Pocket, a wooden box to hold rolled marijuana cigarettes, or joints.
Vendors display information about medical marijuana at the Cape’s first Cannabis Convention.
The box comes in two sizes, what they called the “old school” smaller size that fits easily in a pocket and a larger size that caters to “young guys” who like larger joints.
Jo-Ann Bellanti of Wrentham of Pot Pocket said she got interested in medical marijuana after her sister got cancer and passed away.
She said the box solves the problem of people using medical marijuana who want a more respectable way to carry around the drug.
“She didn’t want to carry it around in a baggie. It looks ‘druggie,’” Bellanti said.
