Meadow (YC W15) ‘Ubered’ Over a Doctor to Give Me a Medical Marijuana Evaluation

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/04/cannabismd/

by rickharrison • 11 years ago

51 31 11 years ago

techcrunch.com

eigenrick• 11 years ago

Legalizing weed in CA will destroy an entire industry.

kcole16• 11 years ago

It'll be interesting to see if medical marijuana lobbyists are the ones that keep legalization from passing

eonw• 11 years ago

and just create another.

ryanmcbride• 11 years ago

Dispensaries, Growers, Distributers will all still exist. Doctors will be out of the mix but they have the fall back of... you know... being doctors.

_cudgel• 11 years ago

Buggy Whips.

PeterWhittaker• 11 years ago

Perhaps it's just because I live far from the valley and have never used Uber, but I had to scan the article repeatedly to figure out what the headline meant.

(No, I didn't read it, I simply scanned, I stopped reading after the first sentence. If you cannot bother to tell me in the first sentence why I should continue, I don't. And telling me you visited a website doesn't tell me why you did so. Whatever.)

What does it mean, you ask? That the company described has struck a deal with local physicians to perform on-demand evaluations for medical marijuana prescriptions.

A better headline, less link-baity, would be "Meadow (YC W15) hires doctors for {just in time|on demand|favourite term here} medical marijuana evaluation.

But that wouldn't be as sexy as uberizing, now, would it?

prawn• 11 years ago

I almost gave up after your own first sentence. Your post could've been simply this:

A better headline, less link-baity, would be "Meadow (YC W15) hires doctors for {just in time|on demand|favourite term here} medical marijuana evaluation."

bunkydoo• 11 years ago

Well, here's the thing. I'm not actually sure doctors will be out of the mix with legalization on the horizon. Because to expand the cannabis market and poach alcohol sales - you could have doctors vouch for cannabis & cannabis-infused products as remedies for common ailments (when is the last time a doctor did this for a brand of vodka?)Think Mary-Kay - but for doctors who endorse weed. This market is going to be a lot bigger than I think anybody realizes.

Crito4• 11 years ago

Actual legalization would kill this industry. In Washington and Colorado (states which have actually legalized, not merely implemented a medical system or decriminalized) there is no need to see a doctor first. You just walk into the store, show a photo id to establish your age, and hand over cash.

Also: "During Prohibition, Your Doctor Could Write You a Prescription for Booze" http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/during-prohibition-you...

rosser• 11 years ago

It's my understanding that under the WA system, some things still require a doctor's recommendation.

EDIT: A recommendation increases the amount of marijuana or marijuana-based product one can legally possess (strictly speaking, it offers an affirmative defense for people possessing more than the amount authorized by I-502).

Source: http://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/Marijuana/MedicalMari...

dmpayton• 11 years ago

Medical cannabis still exists in Colorado. You can still go to a doctor and get a recommendation, and many dispensaries will give a discount to qualified patients.

(Edit: wording)

unchocked2• 11 years ago

What bunkydoo is saying, is that doctors touting cannabis may still be a thing, because it's legal to tout cannabis as a health product. Which is an interesting thought, because doctors totally used to do that with alcohol and tobacco.

https://www.google.com/search?q=doctor+recommended+cigarette...

mikereedell• 11 years ago

In CO, buying MMJ still requires a medical card. If you go to a medical/recreational dispensary without a medical card you can only purchase recreational MJ, which tends to be sativas or hybrids while medical tends to be indicas and indica hybrids.

There are also different tax and quantity rules around MMJ in Colorado. Medical card holders pay 2% (I think) tax while recreational pay over 20% tax. Medical card holders can also purchase 2oz at a time while recreational users can only buy an ounce at a time. Medical card holders can also grow twice the amount at home than non-card holders.

Until there's no differentiation between medical and recreational MJ, there will still be a need for doctors who are willing to fill out the paperwork for medical cards.

anigbrowl• 11 years ago

I don't think the weed industry wants to go down the 'more doctors smoke camels' route.

http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/images.php?token2=f...

click1702• 11 years ago

This is maybe a little bit off topic, but I am glad to see that Doctors on Demand would be doing general medical house calls in the US. This seems like a good idea, I hope it spreads.

I don't live in the US myself, but I've always wondered why doctors doing house calls was a UK thing but wasn't a North American thing, even in Canada.

Are there real obstacles preventing doctors from making house calls in the US, or is it just tradition to "go see your doctor" instead of them coming to see you?

001sky• 11 years ago

Lets say a doctor charges $1,000/hour and each trip takes 20 minutes, plus 10 mintues to egress a building and parking garage/pick up a taxi. The overhead for a single visit is...$1,000 give or take...

You can adjust the numbers around a bit but the point remains the same unless you radically change the transit time and the wage by a factor of 10.

ceejayoz3• 11 years ago

No GP is making $1k/hour.

click1702• 11 years ago

Couldn't the price of a house call just be increased to account for this?

Or rather, a health care system where visiting a doctor is free, but house calls are only included in the health care plan if your have a disability that restricts your movement, allowing you to pay for house calls out of pocket if you chose to.

_delirium• 11 years ago

I've never heard of house calls in Scandinavia either, unless it's strictly necessary (immobile elderly patient, etc.). It takes more of the doctor's time, therefore is more expensive, and generally we don't want medical care to get more expensive when it's possible to avoid it. For example a typical GP in Denmark sees 6 patients per hour, which seems difficult to do with house visits unless the patients live in the same building or something.

userium• 11 years ago

In Finland, at least in Helsinki, they have a "home hospital" system (http://www.hel.fi/www/Helsinki/en/socia-health/health/hospit...) for "patients who do not need the services of emergency units or specialist care". In case the patient is "healthy" enough to go home and has somebody to look after him there, they arrange for a nurse to visit e.g. even four times per day, to give meds, provide IV, and even take blood tests. Also sometimes a doctor visits the patient, though not as often as the nurses. Staying at the hospital is very expensive (for the country), so I have heard that the outpatient care ends up being cheaper.

briandear• 11 years ago

I find it interesting that YC and other significant investors/players in the startup space to be investing in a product that still remains illegal in the United States. It's still a schedule I drug.

I think the floodgates have opened towards full legalization, but for VC/Investors/Accelerators to invest in a company who's product is illegal -- that's bold. Good for them!

Meadow (YC W15) ‘Ubered’ Over a Doctor to Give Me a Medical Marijuana Evaluation

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