The state is launching a $60,000 medical marijuana marketing campaign this month aimed at enlisting more Connecticut doctors to prescribe the drug, just as the fledgling industry faces increased competition from the black market, which is being flooded with product from states that have legalized cannabis.
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The state is launching a $60,000 medical marijuana marketing campaign this month aimed at enlisting more Connecticut doctors to prescribe the drug, just as the fledgling industry faces increased competition from the black market, which is being flooded with product from states that have legalized cannabis.
The Department of Consumer Protection will target the state's 10,000 doctors by advertising on medical journal websites and speaking at physician group meetings, in order to recruit more providers to become certified prescribers of medical marijuana. The campaign will run for four to six months; the $60,000 will be funded out of DCP's budget.
The marketing push is part of a larger DCP outreach effort that started in February aimed at educating the public on the benefits of marijuana, which was approved for medical use in the state in 2012 and first started being sold last year.
“The goal is for people to know there is a program. The second goal is to make them realize it is a medical program,” said DCP Commissioner Jonathan Harris, who emphasized growing the medical marijuana program when he took office in January.
Ultimately, these outreach efforts are designed to change the public's perception of a product long thought of as illicit. DCP and medical marijuana industry officials said they want to get to a point where patients and doctors no longer need to register for the program and physicians can be trusted to prescribe it just as they would any other legal drug; currently only individuals afflicted with government-approved qualifying conditions can obtain medical cannabis. Greater acceptance of the drug would make it easier for marijuana growers to become profitable and negate the impact of the black market, which has been around far longer and can be a cheaper alternative.
Hesitant doctors
Some Connecticut doctors, however, have been hesitant to prescribe marijuana. They don't like the idea of recommending a drug not approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, especially one with limited data on its medical benefits, said Dr. David Emmel, a Wethersfield ophthalmologist.
Emmel said some of his glaucoma patients have asked about the drug's use, but he tells them there are other prescription drugs that last longer and are more effective.
“Marijuana is the worst glaucoma medicine ever invented,” Emmel said.
As more data about the effectiveness of medical marijuana becomes available, more doctors should join the program, said Dr. Andrew Salner, chief of radiation oncology and director of The Helen & Harry Gray Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital.
As of April 14, 200 Connecticut doctors were licensed to prescribe medical marijuana, up from 108 in October, according to DCP. The number of registered patients was 3,635, up from 3,027 on March 4.
Salner is one of those 200 licensed physicians, and he has prescribed medical marijuana to about two dozen patients. He said patients are telling him the drug eases symptoms of cancer, such as nausea, loss of appetite, and pain.
“That kind of patient testimonial makes an impact, especially because the information doesn't come through the usual routes,” Salner said.
The four growers and six dispensaries that make up Connecticut's medical marijuana industry are also making outreach efforts, such as appearing at seminars like the June 18 Connecticut Employee Assistant Professionals Association event in Wallingford entitled “Medical Marijuana: Clearing the Smoke on Fact from Fiction.”
“We need to make [the drug] more available,” said Ethan Ruby, president and CEO of Watertown-based Theraplant, one of the four approved growers in the state. “Qualifying conditions shouldn't be a political decision. It should be a medical one.”
Black market battle
While DCP and the industry are working to bring legitimacy and awareness to medical marijuana, growers and dispensaries have found themselves in a battle with industry players from the nearly two dozen states that have legalized the drug, either for medicinal or recreational purposes.
Those drugs, particularly from the West Coast, are making their way illegally into the Connecticut black market, according to the Connecticut State Police's Statewide Narcotics Task Force.
Under the state's cannabis program, only marijuana grown at one of the four in-state producers — Theraplant, Advanced Grow Labs in West Haven, Curaleaf in Simsbury, and Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions in Portland — can be sold legally in the state.
Connecticut growers, however, are competing against the black market on product price and quality. Local growers like Ruby said they are confident in the quality of their marijuana because DCP has strict growing and testing requirements.
Even still, there is a perception that Colorado has the best quality cannabis, and it can be hard to change people's minds on that, Ruby said.
“Culturally, people feel that marijuana that is grown out west in California or Colorado will be better,” said Amanda Reiman, manager of marijuana law and policy for the Drug Policy Alliance in California. “Just like people think wine is better if it comes from Napa Valley, even though Connecticut might have wine that is as good or better.”
In terms of pricing, an eighth of an ounce of marijuana costs $40-$60 at a Connecticut medical marijuana dispensary; an eighth of an ounce on the black market will cost about $40, according to the website PriceOfWeed.com.
The other major selling point for local growers: Their customers don't risk running afoul of law enforcement.
Growing the industry
As regulators, DCP has credibility with doctors and patients to promote medical marijuana, more than the industry just advocating for itself, Harris said. He added DCP expects its physician and patient counts to grow significantly by June.
Having more patients and more doctors prescribing the drug would give the industry room to grow, Harris said. The four growers and six dispensaries currently employ 230 people.
Theraplant, which only uses about half of its space in its Watertown building, could nearly triple its employment count to more than 100 when operating at full capacity, Ruby said. Eventually, there could be room to add more locations, although that might take another DCP license.
Ruby said about 500,000 people in Connecticut use marijuana. While a significant portion of those are recreational users, he said it's pathetic that the medical marijuana program currently has less than 4,000 patients.
Like most businesses entering their second year, Theraplant isn't profitable, Ruby said, but the company is in it for the long haul.
The concern over industry growth is a problem, though, said Emmel. The use of medical marijuana in Connecticut should be driven by patients' needs and not profit margin. “We have created a strong financial condition for the expanded use of it at a time when we don't know if expanded use is helpful for patients,” Emmel said.
Winning hearts and minds
Meanwhile, as the medical marijuana program matures, growers are getting more sophisticated in their drug-delivery methods. The percentage of patients who actually smoke the drug is decreasing, Harris said, with other forms such as pills, creams, oils, flavors for vaporizers, and strips that melt in patients' mouths (similar to those developed by mouthwash company Listerine) are becoming more popular.
The pill form of the drug is particularly helpful in distancing the industry further from the black market, Harris said.
Eventually, Ruby said the use of medical marijuana should no longer be part of a state-run program. Instead, it would be just like any other medical drug, where doctors can be trusted to prescribe it in a responsible way for patients who need it.
Connecticut currently has 11 qualifying conditions that patients must have in order to join the medical marijuana program. That will grow to 17 by the end of the year, Harris said.
Ruby's vision of a program where no qualifying conditions are needed will happen, Harris said, but first the state must get more doctors to trust the program.
“That will happen at some point in time,” Harris said. “First people must realize it is a medical program, and that Connecticut is not Colorado.”
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