Ramesh Patel, senior director of pharmacy services, has worked at Swedish Covenant Hospital for 36 years and would oversee the hospital's medical marijuana pharmacy. "We are already a secure pharmacy," he says, "so we feel that for a marijuana clinic this would be the perfect location." | Peter Holderness/Sun-Times Media
A dangerous neighborhood.
The threat of arrest, or worse.
An unreliable product, sold by criminals.
For seriously ill patients who rely on medical marijuana to ease their pain, paying for their treatment can be a “risky operation,” according to multiple sclerosis patient Julie Falco.
But if officials at Swedish Covenant Hospital get their way, medical marijuana users like Falco could one day purchase their cannabis at a hospital dispensary — just like a patient buying a dosed antibiotic or a powerful pain reliever at the hospital’s pharmacy.
“We have professionals who very much would like to prescribe those drugs, we have the system in place to manage it and we have the patient population that needs it,” said Marcia Jimenez, the hospital’s director of intergovernmental affairs. “It just made a lot of sense.”
Swedish Covenant wants to be the first Illinois hospital to take advantage of the state’s decision last year to legalize medical marijuana — a decision that’s likely to trigger a marijuana “Gold Rush.”
The state has agreed to issue 60 permits to sell the drug — 13 of which will be in Chicago.
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