The Disability Support Program in Ontario, Canada is refusing to cover medical marijuana under the Ontario Drug Benefit Program. And the failure to provide coverage, according to the CBC, is forcing some patients to seek relief from chronic pain with powerful opiates instead. Injured workers covered by the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board have recently been denied reimbursement for medicinal cannabis costs, as well.
Bobby Assoun of Ottawa, Ontario is licensed to use medical marijuana to treat the chronic pain caused by multiple sclerosis. She had been paying for her medicine herself, but a recent financial hardship has made that impossible. Without access to medicinal cannabis, she will have to resume taking the powerful opioid hydromorphone instead.
“There’s only one thing that it will mean, which is that I’ll be going back and using my Dilaudid,” said Assoun, using a brand name for the prescription medication.
But when Assoun has used the drug in the past, fears of addiction led her to limit her use. But that also meant the medicine was less effective. She said that of all the options she’s tried cannabis provides her with the most relief.
“I look at all the medications I’ve taken over the years, and they don’t help like medical marijuana has done for me,” Assoun said. “I find that it would just be like a wave, and the pain would just go away.”
‘Opiates Out the Wazoo’
Other patients in the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) have had similar experiences. Shaun Gricken uses cannabis to treat anxiety. When several prescription medications didn’t work, he began using cannabis flower and CBD oil instead.
“Before it, I was pretty much literally a shut-in,” Gricken said.
Gricken said that he