Editor's note: Pain Specialists of Cincinnati now operates as RegenLife Centers. Medical marijuana evaluations are offered today at our Cincinnati clinic.

On Monday, February 4, 2019, Pain Specialists of Cincinnati became the first pain clinic in Ohio to add medical marijuana recommendations to its treatment options, giving chronic pain patients a state-regulated option alongside interventional care.

The launch came at a turning point for Ohio's program. The state legalized medical marijuana in 2016, but patients could not actually fill a recommendation until licensed dispensaries opened their doors, and the first legal sales in Ohio took place in January 2019. Weeks later, Pain Specialists of Cincinnati opened evaluations for qualifying patients, making it the first dedicated pain clinic in the state to fold recommendations into a pain management practice.

Why a pain clinic, and why then

Chronic pain was among the qualifying conditions under Ohio's program, which meant many of the patients most likely to seek a recommendation were already sitting in pain clinic waiting rooms. Rather than send those patients to a standalone evaluation clinic with no knowledge of their history, the practice chose to handle evaluations inside the same clinic that managed their injections, imaging, and medication plans. In the practice's view, a recommendation made by the physician who already knew the patient's chart was safer than one made by a stranger in a single short visit.

The groundwork behind the announcement

The launch was not sudden. Dr. Zeeshan Tayeb, then Chief Medical Officer of Pain Specialists of Cincinnati, had received Ohio's certification to recommend medical marijuana back in June 2018. That fall, the practice became one of the first pain clinics in the state to offer urine drug testing for CBD, so that physicians could see what patients were already taking before any recommendation was written. By the time dispensary shelves were stocked, the clinical process was already in place.

What this looked like for patients

Under Ohio's program, a physician with a certificate to recommend could evaluate a patient, confirm a qualifying condition, and register the patient with the state. The patient then purchased products from a licensed dispensary. The clinic's role was the medical evaluation and the ongoing follow-up, not the sale of any product.

Patients at our Cincinnati location can still be evaluated today; see the editor's note above for the current program page.