Family Of Doctors Are Changing The Face Of Medical Marijuana

There are many sayings when it comes to family. Some say, “the family that prays together, stays together.” But one family is living by a new mantra that patients are seeing in action every day: “the family that practices medical marijuana together, stays together.”

Yes, you read that right.

The Knox family is made up of four doctors, a mother, father and two siblings living in Oregon and California who specialize in medical marijuana.

“We’re all fighting the same fight,” said Janice Knox, the founding doctor behind American Cannabinoid Clinics in Portland, Oregon.

Janice led the family’s move into medical marijuana in 2012. One of 15 children, she grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and went north for medical school in the 1970s.

After 35 years of being a doctor of anesthesiology, she got tired of working up to seven days a week, late hours and time away from her family. And she got tired of being mistaken for a nurse. “Patients would say, ‘I want a white male doctor,’” Knox told The Washington Post.

After she stepped away from the job, she got a call from a “card mill” — a practice known more for writing prescriptions for medical marijuana quickly than for close attention to patients’ needs. One of the doctors couldn’t be found and wanted her to fill in.

But even though she had always been interested in natural treatments, she definitely was not well-versed in the treatment options, side effects and benefits of medical marijuana.

“I was shocked to see the people that came into card mill,” she said. “Grandmothers, grandfathers, people with Seeing Eye dogs. They weren’t at all who I expected.”

The more she filled in, the more questions she got: Which strain was best? Who can or can’t take this drug? Was smoking pot better than a cannabis edible or a cannabis oil or a cannabis hand cream?

But at the time, like many of us, she didn’t have the answers.

“I was embarrassed because they expected me, a physician, to tell them how to use this medicine,” she said. “I couldn’t answer them. I did not know anything about cannabis.”

“There were businesspeople, doctors, lawyers, moms, dads, grandmothers, grandfathers. I just couldn’t believe who I saw,” Knox said. “They were coming because conventional medicine had failed them. They wanted a better quality of life.”

That’s when she did what any good doctor would do, she started doing her research. Knox has read all the studies she could, attended conferences and been certified as a cannabis specialist.

Knox learned a number of breakthrough therapies including the scientific study of the chemicals in marijuana called cannabinoids that has led to two FDA-approved medications in pill form, dronabinol and nabilone. They are used to treat nausea and boost appetite. Cannabinoids are chemicals related to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), marijuana’s main mind-altering ingredient. Other cannabinoids are used in treating certain cancers as well.

Knox’s husband, David Knox, an emergency room physician for 38 years, kept his day job but also started working at the clinic. He knew nothing about the endocannabinoid system but quickly saw the potential of cannabis as a treatment for epilepsy, cancer-therapy side effects and pain, particularly in the middle of an opioid epidemic.

But the husband and wife weren’t the only Knox’s who wanted to take the family business to new heights (pun intended). The Knox’s two daughters Rachel Knox, 35, and Jessica Knox, 31, wanted in too. After leaving Portland, where they grew up, they lived together in Boston while Jessica finished her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and Rachel did a post-baccalaureate program in preparation for medical school at Tufts University. Then both entered Tufts medical school, graduating in 2012 from a dual-degree program that also offered MBAs.

“We weren’t being taught how to prevent or reverse chronic illness in our medical education,” she said. “We had this longing for more. My curiosity for natural medicine grew out of that frustration in conventional medicine.”

After completing their residencies, Rachel Knox ended up back in Portland, while her sister moved to…

There are many sayings when it comes to family. Some say, “the family that prays together, stays together.” But one family is living by a new mantra that patients are seeing in action every day: “the family that practices medical marijuana together, stays together.”

Yes, you read that right.

The Knox family is made up of four doctors, a mother, father and two siblings living in Oregon and California who specialize in medical marijuana.

“We’re all fighting the same fight,” said Janice Knox, the founding doctor behind American Cannabinoid Clinics in Portland, Oregon.

Janice led the family’s move into medical marijuana in 2012. One of 15 children, she grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and went north for medical school in the 1970s.

After 35 years of being a doctor of anesthesiology, she got tired of working up to seven days a week, late hours and time away from her family. And she got tired of being mistaken for a nurse. “Patients would say, ‘I want a white male doctor,’” Knox told The Washington Post.

After she stepped away from the job, she got a call from a “card mill” — a practice known more for writing prescriptions for medical marijuana quickly than for close attention to patients’ needs. One of the doctors couldn’t be found and wanted her to fill in.

But even though she had always been interested in natural treatments, she definitely was not well-versed in the treatment options, side effects and benefits of medical marijuana.

“I was shocked to see the people that came into card mill,” she said. “Grandmothers, grandfathers, people with Seeing Eye dogs. They weren’t at all who I expected.”

The more she filled in, the more questions she got: Which strain was best? Who can or can’t take this drug? Was smoking pot better than a cannabis edible or a cannabis oil or a cannabis hand cream?

But at the time, like many of us, she didn’t have the answers.

“I was embarrassed because they expected me, a physician, to tell them how to use this medicine,” she said. “I couldn’t answer them. I did not know anything about cannabis.”

“There were businesspeople, doctors, lawyers, moms, dads, grandmothers, grandfathers. I just couldn’t believe who I saw,” Knox said. “They were coming because conventional medicine had failed them. They wanted a better quality of life.”

That’s when she did what any good doctor would do, she started doing her research. Knox has read all the studies she could, attended conferences and been certified as a cannabis specialist.

Knox learned a number of breakthrough therapies including the scientific study of the chemicals in marijuana called cannabinoids that has led to two FDA-approved medications in pill form, dronabinol and nabilone. They are used to treat nausea and boost appetite. Cannabinoids are chemicals related to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), marijuana’s main mind-altering ingredient. Other cannabinoids are used in treating certain cancers as well.

Knox’s husband, David Knox, an emergency room physician for 38 years, kept his day job but also started working at the clinic. He knew nothing about the endocannabinoid system but quickly saw the potential of cannabis as a treatment for epilepsy, cancer-therapy side effects and pain, particularly in the middle of an opioid epidemic.

But the husband and wife weren’t the only Knox’s who wanted to take the family business to new heights (pun intended). The Knox’s two daughters Rachel Knox, 35, and Jessica Knox, 31, wanted in too. After leaving Portland, where they grew up, they lived together in Boston while Jessica finished her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and Rachel did a post-baccalaureate program in preparation for medical school at Tufts University. Then both entered Tufts medical school, graduating in 2012 from a dual-degree program that also offered MBAs.

“We weren’t being taught how to prevent or reverse chronic illness in our medical education,” she said. “We had this longing for more. My curiosity for natural medicine grew out of that frustration in conventional medicine.”

After completing their residencies, Rachel Knox ended up back in Portland, while her sister moved to…