Fear and Loving in Pittsburgh - S1:E4

SHOW OUTLINE

Intro

• Opening Quote: "All decisions are made from two places, love or fear. That's it. That's all there is to it.
  So, if you're afraid, dig down deep, think about what you're afraid of, and is it real?
  Because I don't think it is."
• "Welcome to Healing Hearts, a podcast created by The Healing Center, voted 'Pittsburgh's Best Dispensary.'"
• Host Mike Flick introduces the episode and starts the conversation.

Body

Host Mike Flick, The Healing Center Co-Founder Chris Kohan, General Manager Michael Butler, CEO of Compassionate Certification Centers (CCC) Melonie Kotchey and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bryan Doner talk about the growth of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania and how the state programs continue to innovate and positively influence people's lives.

Segment 1 - Mike Flick, Chris Kohan, Melonie Kotchey and Michael Butler

• Melonie discusses a whitepaper from CCC detailing a key research study on medical cannabis in the state of Pennsylvania.
• The study surveyed thousands of subjects who are current or past participants in the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Program who were asked to answer a variety of questions based on their first-hand experience.
• Results showed over 99% of patients surveyed said they were able to reduce their symptoms with medical cannabis.
• The group shifts to talking about how patients get started in the program and how they need to overcome fears to find a better quality of life.
• Melonie draws on her own experiences signing up for a medical marijuana card and how she found the right dose/strain for her.
• Chris Kohan talks about the whitepaper further and shows passion/pride when discussing the PA medical marijuana program.

Segment 2 - Mike Flick, Chris Kohan, Melonie Kotchey, Bryan Doner (Via Zoom) and Michael Butler

• Kohan starts by asking Doner about the whitepaper and why they wanted to conduct this patient-centric study.
• Doner is then asked about how patients are having trouble transitioning to medical marijuana. They find several roadblocks along the way with many systemic issues relating to either insurance or the shift from opiates to treat pain.
• Melonie Kotchey clarifies that medical cannabis databases do not sync with government databases like Medicare and they would not know that you have your card unless you tell them.
• Doner discusses education next, saying that the endocannabinoid system is not taught in medical school and that is part of the problem.
• Kohan goes into more detail on the whitepaper, listing some numbers from the study.
• Melonie talks about success stories with cannabis that she personally witnessed.

Segment 3 - Mike Flick, Chris Kohan, Melonie Kotchey and Michael Butler

• Mike Flick brings it back to Melonie to go more in-depth with her personal story applying to be a medical marijuana patient.
• She says she did not get her card until she was in her late 30's because she was afraid of the repercussions, despite all of the chronic pain she was in.
• Melonie shares that her negative experience early on in Arizona was inspiration to start CCC in her home state of Pennsylvania to help others get started.
• The group starts to wind down by talking about how much this medicine has helped people.

Close

• Host Mike Flick summarizes the episode and tosses to the outro, thanking the listeners for joining them.
• "Healing Hearts is presented by The Healing Center, voted 'Pittsburgh's Best Dispensary.' Healing Hearts is recorded at the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University. More information is available at thehealingcenterusa.com."

Credits

Host: Mike Flick, The Healing Center
Guests: Chris Kohan, Co-Founder - The Healing Center; Melonie Kotchey, CEO - Compassionate Certification Centers; Dr. Bryan Doner, Chief Medical Officer - Compassionate Certification Centers; Michael Butler, General Manager - The Healing Center
Executive Producer: Lisa Craig, Marketing Director - The Healing Center
Editor: Nicholas Ruffolo, Center for Media Innovation

Intro Song:
Antidepresseur by Patchworker f.k.a. [friendzoned] | https://soundcloud.com/patchworker
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US

Outro Song:
Bittersweet by | e s c p | https://escp-music.bandcamp.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/