ORANGE PARK – A new Clay County clinic is making the search for a medical marijuana certified physician a little easier on patients.

The Compassionate Care Clinic of America in Orange Park opened its doors last month to give patients curious about medical marijuana some comfort when embarking on their first steps to a medical marijuana prescription – finding a doctor who can recommend it.

The clinic just off Kingsley Avenue is the third location for President Matthew Drenburg and remains a small operation of one full-time physician and a handful of staff. While the clinic and others like it are still battling with a mercurial legislature and finding their footing in the state, Drenburg said he’s confident in the medicinal qualities of medical marijuana and wants patients to have a place where they can get answers.

“It’s a new industry, we’ve only been legal in Florida since January 3,” Drenburg said. “Being so new, it’s a matter of getting the word out there so people are aware that it is legal and that they can access this as a form of medication. So our goal with compassionate care is to at least provide the entire state access to medical marijuana as an alternative to what they’re doing.”

Drenburg operates two other clinics in both Gainesville and Pompano Beach, and has signed leases for Jacksonville, where he lives, and Tallahassee.

His expansion comes at a time when concrete answers regarding regulation died with the closure of the 2017 session of the Florida Legislature as lawmakers were unable to reach a compromise on dispensary limits.

Regulation is now left up to the Florida Department of Health Office of Compassionate Use to develop guidelines for medical marijuana’s expansion into the Florida market after voters overwhelmingly voted for Amendment 2 by 71 percent in 2016.

The Office of Compassionate Use sought draft rules for medical marijuana that placed tighter restrictions on the number of qualifying conditions and how soon patients could receive treatment.

If the draft rules remain a precursor to the coming regulations, the state could open itself up to litigation from special interest groups who believe the rules do not reflect what voters initially agreed to.

Despite these hurdles and others, Drenburg said he would continue to improve access to patients.

Currently, he said, his patients can receive deliveries of the medicine after receiving clearance from a physician. However, because prescriptions cap at a 45-day limit, he said some patients’ prescriptions run out before the product can reach them.

Additionally, health care remains a hurdle for continued prescriptions. Insurance companies don’t cover medical marijuana because the medicine is still considered a schedule I drug on the federal level despite many states having legalized it.

Patients will pay out of pocket for both a visit to Drenburg’s clinic and, if the patient qualifies, the resulting medication. Altogether, this could run a patient more than $200.

Despite the costs, it can be worth the price, especially for patients who currently use opioids, Drenburg said.

“I watched a personal friend of mine ruin his life” on opioids, Drenburg said. “The minute he got on opioids, his life went down the tubes...That’s why I started this, because I feel this is the answer. Nothing else has worked to wean people off the opioids.”

Research backs up Drenburg’s hypothesis.

A study published in the medical journal Health Affairs last July found prescriptions for medications used to treat symptoms of chronic pain, anxiety and depression declined in states where patients could purchase medical marijuana.

The Office of Compassionate Use has until July to finalize regulations on the operation of dispensaries and use in Florida. In the meantime, there is a discussion in Tallahassee to call a special legislative session to address the issue and other items, including a possible budget veto by Gov. Rick Scott.