It was standing room only at Windsor's Giovani Caboto Club Wednesday Night for the Arthritis Society's Medical Cannabis and Chronic Disease Public Forum.
Nearly 400 people attended the meeting to hear the latest on using marijuana to manage symptoms of chronic disease in everyday life from a panel of experts.
Standing room only for the Medical Cannabis and Chronic Disease Public Forum put on by the @ArthritisSoc at The Caboto Club. #cklw pic.twitter.com/G9GIlkuBJw
— Gord Bacon (@baconAM800) January 31, 2018
Dr. Christopher Blue is one of those experts. The Windsor - based prescribing-physician spoke to AM800's Patty Handysides on The Afternoon News leading up to the event.
Blue says many of the misconceptions circling marijuana in the medical community for decades are flat out wrong - pot is no more addictive or harmful than caffeine.
"All the people that consume more than three or four Tim Hortons [coffees] a day, and then I take it away from them ten-years-later, they don't go through the withdrawals that you would see from opioids and other illicit substances," he says. "Withdrawal and dependency are a big fear and people are starting to realize more and more that you really don't have that with cannabis."
Lauren Meadows has been dealing with Rheumatoid Arthritis all her life, but it wasn't properly diagnosed until she was studying to become a nurse at just 18 years old.
Now working as a Registered Nurse Practitioner, Meadows says she uses different strains of medical marijuana to deal with issues ranging from loss of movement and dexterity, to chronic pain.
She says there are some other benefits that many prescription drugs don't address in a healthy, non-addictive way.
"Insomnia and fatigue, if you're a chronic pain patient you might know that some of the medications that are prescribed don't tend to help with those areas of your pain," she says.
Meadows only uses strains of cannabis that may affect her performance on personal time, but Workplace lawyer Fabio Cozstante says — if the use of medical marijuana does affect performance — an employer has a legal responsibility to accommodate workers under Canada's Human Rights Act.
He told the crowd being open and honest with an employer is imperative — if a worker is treated differently or fired — there are protections in place.
"You could advance a claim that could and see yourself successful, whether it is monetary damages for injury to dignity, self-respect, and feelings, including lost wages if they terminate you," says Cozstante. "Get this, and the power to be reinstated in the workplace for non-unionized-employees."
More than 6-million people are living with chronic pain due to arthritis in Canada, according to The Arthritis Society of Canada.