Main MMJ Physician Services - About

How does this work?

Short version.
1. We require payment before we schedule you for an appointment and provide you with your certificate.

2. Prior to your appointment, you must undergo a pre-certification process. This involves sending us external proof of your qualifying condition. Except for chronic pain, this proof is usually met by having your doctor fax or email us records from your last doctor's visit.

3. If we are unable to certify you, we will refund your payment.  

Long version.
Maine residents wishing to become one of our patients must have one of the fourteen "qualifying conditions" accepted by the state (click here for more information). Many Maine patients qualify by having pain that is insufficiently relieved by other medical treatments for over six months. The types of disorders qualifying under the pain category include such things as arthritis, headaches, prior trauma, fibromyalgia, and the like. For such patients to be certified, this history of pain must be verifiable through prior medical records. 

The certification process itself is simple. Patients are provided with a one-year certificate at the conclusion of their office visit, allowing them to legally purchase (or grow) marijuana for their own medical use. 

Prospective patients should be reassured that our services are absolutely confidential. Patient information, medical history, clinic visits, and any communications are kept private. Maine privacy laws regarding medical marijuana certification and use are both patient-oriented and progressive. Accordingly, patient records are never released to the state or medical facilities outside our clinic (unless the patient specifically tell us to do so).

Note that we are not a dispensary and do not provide medical marijuana or other medications. Our service provides the physician certification required by the state of Maine that allows patients to legally access any of Maine's eight medical marijuana dispensaries (or grow or receive medical marijuana through other legally-permissible means).

We encourage you to call or email us with questions or to schedule an appointment. All calls or emails are handled respectfully and with our assurance of complete privacy.

How does this work?

Short version.
1. We require payment before we schedule you for an appointment and provide you with your certificate.

2. Prior to your appointment, you must undergo a pre-certification process. This involves sending us external proof of your qualifying condition. Except for chronic pain, this proof is usually met by having your doctor fax or email us records from your last doctor's visit.

3. If we are unable to certify you, we will refund your payment.  

Long version.
Maine residents wishing to become one of our patients must have one of the fourteen "qualifying conditions" accepted by the state (click here for more information). Many Maine patients qualify by having pain that is insufficiently relieved by other medical treatments for over six months. The types of disorders qualifying under the pain category include such things as arthritis, headaches, prior trauma, fibromyalgia, and the like. For such patients to be certified, this history of pain must be verifiable through prior medical records. 

The certification process itself is simple. Patients are provided with a one-year certificate at the conclusion of their office visit, allowing them to legally purchase (or grow) marijuana for their own medical use. 

Prospective patients should be reassured that our services are absolutely confidential. Patient information, medical history, clinic visits, and any communications are kept private. Maine privacy laws regarding medical marijuana certification and use are both patient-oriented and progressive. Accordingly, patient records are never released to the state or medical facilities outside our clinic (unless the patient specifically tell us to do so).

Note that we are not a dispensary and do not provide medical marijuana or other medications. Our service provides the physician certification required by the state of Maine that allows patients to legally access any of Maine's eight medical marijuana dispensaries (or grow or receive medical marijuana through other legally-permissible means).

We encourage you to call or email us with questions or to schedule an appointment. All calls or emails are handled respectfully and with our assurance of complete privacy.

WHO IS QUALIFIES?

Enacted in 2009, Maine state law legalizes marijuana use for Maine residents who are properly certified by a physician.

In order to be certified, a prospective patient must meet these qualifications:

• Be a Maine resident (information for New Hampshire patients at bottom of this page)
• Possess a Maine driver's license or state photo identification card
• Have no drug-related felonies on record in the past 10 years
• Have one of the qualifying medical conditions or symptoms from the list below

As of November 2016, only the following medical conditions or symptoms are accepted by the state:

• Pain (though patients must demonstrate that the pain is currently ongoing, has lasted for more than 6 months, and has not responded to ordinary medical or surgical measures)
• Severe nausea
• Seizures
• Severe muscle spasms
• Wasting syndromes (severe weight loss, also known as cachexia)
• Cancer
• Inflammatory bowel disease (such as Crohn's or ulcerative colitis)
• Glaucoma
• HIV or AIDS
• Hepatitis C
• ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)
• Alzheimer's disease
• Nail patella syndrome (a rare birth defect)
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
   

For minors (patients under 18 years):

• We currently do not certify minors, though are willing to consider cases on an exceptional basis (e.g., end-stage cancer). In addition to all the requirements above, the state has very strict requirements for minor certification, including independent evaluation by two physicians and a notarized affidavit signed by both parents.

For patients with any type of mental illness:

• Except for PTSD, Maine law currently does not consider other mental conditions sufficient for qualification.
• Specifically, depression, anxiety, and insomnia are not qualifying conditions in Maine.

The certification process itself requires a visit to a Maine-licensed physician for verification of these qualifications and for completion of the necessary paperwork. 

Once certified, the physician provides the patient with a state-issued form, printed on medical tamper-proof paper and signed by the physician. This form certifies that the patient is legally allowed to use marijuana for medical purposes for up to one year (after which the form must be renewed by the physician).

Patients with certification for medical marijuana are legally allowed to grow up to six plants for their own use or purchase marijuana from one of eight assigned state dispensaries or a combination of these two. (Patients may also opt to have a caregiver grow plants for them, but this option requires further registration of the caregiver with the state.) Further, patients are allowed to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana at a time. They must present the certification to law enforcement (with a valid state ID) if requested.

We handle the physician's certification process, providing qualified patients with a one-year state certificate, counselling, education, and other resources to permit legal medical marijuana use for patients who would benefit from it.

New Hampshire residents. Patients certified in New Hampshire may temporarily be cross-certified in Maine and use Maine's dispensary system until New Hampshire sets up its own dispensary system. Such patients must have their New Hampshire physician complete both New Hampshire and Maine certification procedures. For more information, New Hampshire patients can call Maine's marijuana licensing department at (855) 355-4325.

Appointments

1. Make certain you have a medical condition that qualifies under Maine state law. Click here to open the "Who qualifies?" page on this site if you do not know what specific conditions Maine allows.

2. Have your doctor send us medical records that support your qualifying condition. Click here to open the "Forms for Patients" page on this site where you can find our medical release form. Having your doctor fax or email us your records will allow you to get an appointment much sooner than physically mailing them to us, since mailed records sometimes take several weeks to process. IMPORTANT: We do not review records older than 5 years, laboratory results (except for hepatitis C or HIV confirmation), or x-rays. In other words, confirmation of your qualifying condition requires a fairly recent visit to your doctor. Records sent to us should be limited to 10 pages or less and be directly relevant to the condition you believe qualifies you for medical marijuana certification.

3. Contact us to give us your contact information. You may do this by phone or email. That way, when we receive your records, we can call you to let you know if your records meet Maine's requirements for marijuana certification.

4. Once we have verified your records are sufficient, go to our "Make a Payment" page to pay for an appointment. (For security reasons, we do not take credit cards over the phone.) We are notified electronically by our credit card vendor when payments are made. When we receive payment, we will call you by phone to schedule you for our next available appointment.

5. If you are certain you can get us your records at least one week before our next scheduled appointment, we will make an appointment for you if you choose to pay us before sending records. (We reserve the right to push your appointment to a later date if we do not receive your records in time for your appointment.)

We do not provide appointment dates or times before receiving payment. (If an operator tells you otherwise, you are not dealing with our office.) Because our clinics usually fill 2-3 weeks in advance, we advise our potential patients not to delay in sending records, since this will delay getting a desired appointment date.