The Mamedica Mission: Medical Cannabis is Here

Mamedica exists to improve the lives of patients by pioneering UK medical cannabis. Our mission is to provide education on the therapeutic benefits of a plant which has been used for thousands of years to treat a wide range of chronic conditions, and to inform the millions who are currently self-medicating through the illicit market that there’s now a safe, regulated pathway to obtain their life-improving medicines.

The time has come

We’re at an inflection point now, whereby the preconceptions surrounding medical cannabis are changing. In North America, where prescriptions for medical cannabis have been written for many, many years now, it’s widely accepted that medical cannabis improves lives.

The law has also changed. In November 2018, the UK government changed the legislation by reclassifying cannabis from a schedule one controlled drug to a schedule two controlled drug for medicinal purposes. Effectively, what that meant was the government recognised cannabis as having therapeutic benefits, enabling private prescriptions for cannabis flower – as offered by Mamedica.

In Britain now there are an increasing number of doctors, specialists and consultants who are prepared to prescribe medical cannabis due to a growing understanding of the medicinal impact and outcomes.

We are now where Germany was two years ago, when they had 20,000 patients – there are currently 17,000 people being prescribed cannabis in the UK.

In Germany, they now have 160,000 patients. I believe the UK now has the fundamental framework in place to replicate that mass adoption.

I first became aware of how medical cannabis could benefit patients in the US during the time that I spent on the West Coast. Having seen the medicinal market explode in North America, and also the growth closer to home in Europe it became apparent to me that this was something which had been improving the lives of people who were on much stronger medications for a considerable amount of time.

A couple of years ago, at the beginning of COVID, one of my very close friends was having a particularly hard time due to the impact COVID had on his business. He was suffering from depression and anxiety. He was a shadow of the person who I worked with 10 or 15 years ago. We met up again, probably a year later. Saying he was a different person was an understatement. He alluded to the fact that he’d recently obtained a private prescription from a clinic in the UK – but admitted the service he was receiving wasn’t as good as he’d hoped.

As soon as I heard that, I instantly got to work trying to understand the patient experience, and how I could improve this.

Why education is key to helping millions of people

We need to increase awareness around the fact that this pathway is legal. There’s a large percentage of the British population who are completely unaware that there is a convenient process for them to obtain these medicines.

We also need to provide education about this plant, which has been used as a medicine for 1000s of years. We need to destigmatise it, and change the preconception which a lot of people have previously had about medical cannabis users.

The Department of Health believes that there are eight million people in the UK suffering from a form of chronic pain, of which three million may be eligible for cannabinoid-based medicines where other treatments have failed.

I think the majority of our patients – perhaps 60-70% – will be chronic pain sufferers who are on opioids or other heavy medication.

The other types of ailments which will be common are PTSD, anxiety, MS, insomnia, Crohn’s, and cancer related conditions, like nausea.

All of our specialist consultants are experts in their fields, across pain, psychiatry, neurology, palliative care and cancer. They are also believers in the benefits of a plant which has been prohibited for a long time. A lot of the feedback we’re hearing from prescribers is that they’re getting tremendous job satisfaction from patients coming back and actually saying ‘This is really helping me,’ and that’s very different to what happens when prescribing opioids and other heavy painkillers.

They’re able to provide a solution to patients who were otherwise at their wit’s end. We really pride ourselves in assembling the best team of specialist consultants, whose experience and knowledge is unrivalled in the industry.

 

Quality, regulated products

All products that are supplied to the private prescription market are cultivated and manufactured under EU GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certification.

Any cultivator or manufacturer that wishes to supply a product to the market must adhere to stringent protocols in order to obtain a licence to manufacture or cultivate a product of this type. The product is tested before being released to be prescribed. This standard, which we ensure that our suppliers adhere to, is the most stringent in the world – it’s a pharmaceutical-grade standard.

Patients can be safe in the knowledge that there are no pesticides or other synthetic compounds in their medicine.

Why Mamedica is different

Our service allows patients to have a discreet private video consultation with a specialist doctor in their field.

Providing the consultant and the patient agree medical cannabis would be beneficial for their ailment, the prescription is written and sent to our in house pharmacy, at which point the medicines are dispensed directly to their door, via a next day delivery service.

Our main goal is to put the patient first. We are ensuring we have the most high-calibre consultants available. We offer the widest variety of products available to the patient. Crucially, it’s about putting the patient first – we will be there to hold our patients’ hands throughout the whole process.

That’s why we include touch points within the service; after the first prescription we make a personal phone call to the patient, asking them, ‘How are you? How are you finding the first prescription? Do you have any questions?’ Currently, there’s no other clinic providing that type of service.

We want to be a disruptor. We want to use techniques which other ecommerce direct-to-consumer brands would use to bring education and awareness. We are using experiences gained in a broad range of industries that rely on excellent customer service, to ensure the customer receives an unparalleled service and will not only always come back, but recommend us to others. I really want us to be the Emirates or the Virgin Atlantic of this space.

Jon Robson – Founder Mamedica