A panel discussion on medical marijuana is being fairly well received by those who attended.
Over 300 people came out to the Ciociaro Club on Tuesday evening for the discussion put on by the Rotary Clubs of Windsor-Essex.
Pat Copus attended the event and is a patient of medical marijuana herself. She feels events like these are important and feel they help to change the conversation around medical marijuana.
"I think it's starting to become a lot more positive," says Copus. "The references to people being pot heads and that kind of thing, I thin we have to leave that in the 60s and 70s because it doesn't relate to the people that are using it today."
Rotary Club of Essex president speaks at a panel discussion on medical marijuana held at the Ciociaro Club on April 18, 2017. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
Debbie Lucier tagged along with a friend to the event and was blown away by the fragmentation in the medical marijuana landscape.
"It feels like nobody knows what the laws are," says Lucier. "There's too many unanswered questions out there. There's not enough information. It's a little bit scary."
Dr. Mohammed Abdul Munim is the Patient Outreach Coordinator and Physician Assistant at the Canadian Cannabis Clinic in Windsor.
He was one of the panelists at the event and says one of the biggest misconceptions he hears about medical marijuana is that it is a cure for everything.
"Patients would say, 'It treats cancer' — we don't have any evidence that it treats cancer," says Abdul Munim. "A patient would say, 'It has treated my Crohn's Disease' — we don't have any evidence; it has probably managed or helped them manage their Crohn's symptoms, but we don't have any evidence it has helped treat Crohn's Disease."
The event was the third annual public meeting put on by the Rotary Clubs of Windsor-Essex. The panel featured law enforcement, medical professionals and local medical marijuana producer Aphria.