Jamaica has made a bold step towards capitalizing on the medicinal and revenue-earning potential of medicinal cannabis. Medical Cannabis Therapy is now a reality with the opening of a state-of-the-art, next-generation master-planned wellness and treatment facility in the popular Negril resort.
Apollon Formularies commenced treating of patients on Thursday, August 1, 2019, to coincide with Emancipation Day and the Dream Weekend, an annual entertainment event in Negril.
The facility, which will have its official opening on Friday, October 25, 2019, is a joint venture between Doc’s Place International Inc., an international health and wellness resort, and Apollon Formularies Jamaica Limited. It is located at Doc’s Place, Hotel and Resort Centre in Negril’s West End.
Keynote speaker for the opening will be Minister of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Audley Shaw.
CEO of Doc’s Place and a director of Apollon Formularies Jamaica, Ltd., Stephen D. Barnhill, MD, said, “This strategic relationship provides patients worldwide with the opportunity to receive world-class medical cannabis treatments provided by licensed physicians with special expertise in treating with medical cannabis-based pharmaceuticals in a safe, professional, medical and legal environment.”
He quoted the noted Greek physician, Hippocrates, the patron of medicine, as saying, “Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.”
The goal of the Medical Cannabis Therapy Centre is to provide an environment that enhances the quality of life for those being served. It is modelled after treatment centres, spas, resorts, and hotels that provide hospitality-oriented services in combination with personal care and well-being services.
Commenting on the new facility, Medical Director of Doc’s Place International Inc. and a U.S. board-certified neurosurgeon, Anthony Hall, MD, said, “We are very excited about the opening of the world’s first Global Centre of Excellence for Medical Cannabis Therapy in Negril, Jamaica, which will provide patients with specialized medical care for the myriad of conditions shown to be beneficially treated with medical cannabis pharmaceuticals in a Federally legal environment.” Dr Hall is supported by a team, which includes Dr. Marjorie Vassell and Dr. Alfred Dawes.
Chief Science Officer of Doc’s Place International and former Professor and Director of Clinical Chemistry at MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Herb Fritsche, Ph.D., pointed out that “having the world’s first Global Centre of Excellence for Medical Cannabis Therapy gives us the opportunity to do state-of-the-art research, clinical trials and development based on patient outcomes data, create and adapt pharmaceutical formulations, establish accurate therapeutic doses and develop genomic markers to better determine the proper course of treatment for patients being treated by our excellent medical team using Apollon Formularies Jamaica, Ltd.’s award-winning medical cannabis strains and cannabis-based pharmaceutical formulary.“
CEO of Apollon Formularies Jamaica Ltd., Paul Burke, is pleased that, “We have a strategic relationship with Doc’s Place International to open the world’s first Global Center of Excellence for Medical Cannabis Therapy in Negril, Jamaica, and to provide legal, state-of-the-art, quality-controlled medical cannabis-based pharmaceuticals to the excellent medical team treating these patients.“
Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism has the development of health and wellness tourism as one of its pillars for growing the tourism industry and the Ministry of Health and Wellness recently said they aimed to attract over 100,000 medical tourists to the island within the next 10 years. Doc’s Place International’s Global Centre for Medical Cannabis Therapy aims to be a major contributor to this increase in medical tourists to the island.
Medical cannabis has been shown to be beneficial in myriad of conditions including Prostate Cancer, Breast Cancer, Brain Cancer, Nausea/Vomiting (chemotherapy), Nausea/Vomiting (sea sickness), PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Chronic Pain, Arthritis, Crohn’s Disease/Ulcerative Colitis, Epilepsy, Glaucoma, HIV, Alzheimer’s Disease, Lupus (SLE), Opioid/Narcotic Rehabilitation, Parkinson’s Disease, Anxiety Disorders and Sleep Disorders.
