LeafLine Labs Begins Offering Care to Minnesota Patients Suffering from Intractable Pain

New state policy expanding qualifying conditions for medical cannabis
offers alternative to opioids starting August 1

COTTAGE GROVE, Minn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#CannabisIsMedicine–Starting today, LeafLine
Labs, the physician-founded and patient-focused organization formed
to cultivate, process and distribute medical cannabis in Minnesota, will
be able to dispense medical cannabis to patients suffering from
intractable pain.

Intractable pain was added to the list of qualifying
conditions for medical cannabis earlier this year by the Minnesota
Department of Health. July 1 was the first day health care practitioners
were able to certify patients with chronic pain in the state’s medical
cannabis program and August 1 is the first day this medicine is
available for patients at distribution locations—including four LeafLine
Care Centers in St.
Paul, Eagan,
Hibbing,
and St.
Cloud.

“As a caregiving organization dedicated to putting patients first, we
welcome this opportunity to improve the quality of life of Minnesotans
who bear the burden of chronic pain,” said LeafLine Labs co-founder and
CEO Dr. Andrew Bachman. “For too long, dangerous prescription opioids
have been used to treat intractable pain when the evidence suggests we
should not. Now we can offer a safer alternative—a natural botanically
derived medication that treats many causes of chronic pain without the
same risk of deadly overdose.”

According to data from the Minnesota Department of Health, the state is
experiencing a long-term trend of rising
deaths due to drug overdoses, with more than half of drug-related
deaths tied to prescription medications. The leading drugs responsible
for overdose deaths in 2015 were opioid pain relievers. States with
medical cannabis access, according to a 2014 study in JAMA Internal
Medicine, have 25
percent fewer deaths from opioid overdose than states without legal
medical cannabis.

A recently-published study in Health
Affairs showed that patients do indeed turn away from
prescription drugs when their state allows medical cannabis as an
alternative. In states with legalized medical cannabis, researchers
looking at data from Medicare found a decrease in prescriptions for a
variety of drugs, for conditions including anxiety, depression, nausea,
pain, psychosis, seizures, sleep disorders and spasticity. The drop in
prescriptions wasn’t across-the-board: it only appeared for drugs where
medical cannabis could feasibly be used as a replacement.

“We take our mission to provide safe, reliable medical cannabis
formulations extremely seriously, and look forward to building upon our
track record of success. Since medical cannabis became legal in
Minnesota, 90 percent of patients have reported mild to significant
benefits when surveyed by the Department of Health,” said Dr. Bachman.
“Now that the state has extended access to patients with intractable
pain, we hope we can save people not just from pain, but from the risks
that can come with opioid use, such as accidental dependency, a mounting
tolerance, and in some cases, even death.”

In order to schedule an appointment at a Care Center, patients with a
qualifying medical condition who have received certification from their
health care practitioners must first register with the Minnesota
Department of Health’s Office of Medical Cannabis. After registering,
they can consult with pharmacists and certified pharmacy technicians at
LeafLine Labs to determine which specific botanically-formulated
medications and recommended dosages are best for them and purchase their
medical cannabis.

LeafLine Labs is one of two Minnesota organizations licensed to
cultivate, process and distribute medical cannabis as part of the
state’s medical cannabis program, which launched in the summer of 2015.
Physician-founded and patient-care driven, LeafLine Labs delivers safe,
reliable, sustainable and accessible formulations of botanically derived
medication from the whole cannabis plant. We’re dedicated to providing
knowledgeable, compassionate, authentic and dignified care to
Minnesotans in need.

Contacts

For LeafLine Labs
Jennifer Weismann, 612-716-0556
jennifer@owl-marketing.com