FAQs

If you are currently experiencing an emergency, please call 9-1-1 immediately.

We receive many different questions about our practice and qualifying patients. Below you will find the answers to some of our most commonly asked questions. Should there be a question that you have that is not listed, feel free to call us at 813-633-0081.

Appointments

Please call us at 813-633-0081.  Because of the high volume of calls we receive, please review the questions and answers below, and we will be happy to answer any further questions.

We are a no risk/no obligation practice. While we do require payment be made in full prior to you receiving our services, should the doctor find a disqualifying factor (such as a direct prior history of schizophrenia), we will refund 50% of your visit total before you leave our clinic from your initial visit.

For your initial appointment, you should arrive 10-15 minutes early. If you haven’t downloaded, printed, read, and completed your Patient Forms, you’ll need to arrive at least half an hour early.

When you arrive, we’ll check your paperwork to ensure it’s filled out completely and everything is in order. Then we’ll accept your payment (services must be paid prior to them being rendered). From there, you’ll be taken to the exam room and the medical assistant will take your vitals. The doctor will then perform a physical examination and develop a treatment plan based upon the exam and your health history. We may take a DNA swab on the inside cheek of your mouth to test (PGX) your medication reactions with the use of Marijuana.  Once your exam is complete, we’ll schedule your follow up appointment for about 10 weeks after your initial visit before you leave.

Since there is more involved in an initial appointment with our clinic, please allow for 45 minutes to an hour. Should you need a work or school excuse, we can provide one.

Yes. All of our scheduling and medical records systems are 100% HIPAA compliant.

Yes, in fact we highly recommend you provide us with as much health information from the past 12 months from your primary care physician and/or specialists as you can. We don’t need labsonly charted records and radiology reports of your diagnosis.

WE WANT YOU TO BRING YOUR RECORDS WITH YOU DURING YOUR INITIAL APPOINTMENT. Please do not have records sent prior to your first visit with us.

Due to the fact we have a high volume of patients who are waiting to be seen, should you need to cancel or reschedule your initial appointment, please call us ASAP. If you no call/no show, we reserve the right to discharge you as a patient and charge your credit or debit card on file.

After the initial visit and follow-up approval visit, usually every 10-30 weeks. The most days that is allowed to be recommended currently is 210 (30 weeks).

At the first 10-week follow-up appointment, Dr. Craig Amshel, M.D. will review your recent medical history and records that may be requested from your initial visit. Those follow up visits take 15-20 minutes and cost $100.

Because cannabis is still prohibited at a Federal level, we are unable to accept medical insurance. We are, however, a legal medical practice and each patient will be provided with a receipt upon payment they can submit to their insurance companies for reimbursement if allowed.

Yes.

Free Parking is available in front and around our clinic.

We are legally required to provide new patients with a full physical examination and a health history review. Because the first visit is much more intensive than the follow-up visits, our initial visits are priced at $250. With Veterans, Retired Police/Firefighters/Teachers at a discounted fee of $200.


Medical Marijuana In Florida

To obtain your medical marijuana ID card from the state, patients must submit a copy of a valid Florida driver license or Florida identification card. If you do not possess a valid Florida driver license or Florida identification card, you may submit a copy of a utility bill in the patients’ name including a Florida address, or a Florida voter registration card. The name and address on the documents provided for residency must match the name and address in the application. For minor patients, the parent or designated legal representative must submit proof of residency of the parent or designated legal representative. “Snowbirds” who live in FL for at least 30 consecutive days are eligible.

There are three disqualifying factors that make you ineligible for Florida’s medical marijuana program:

  • If you aren’t a Florida resident or cannot prove residency.
  • If you have a personal history of schizophrenia.
  • If you have a direct familiar history of schizophrenia (mother, father, siblings)

Florida’s medical marijuana program is available to patients suffering from a debilitating medical condition. Per the Florida statutes:

“Debilitating Medical Condition” means cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or other debilitating medical conditions of the same kind or class as or comparable to those enumerated, and for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient.

The last sentence “or other debilitating medical conditions of the same kind or class as or comparable to those enumerated, and for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient” allows for Dr. Craig Amshel to qualify you based upon his professional discretion, provided you have a debilitating illness.

For a patient to receive medical marijuana in Florida, current statute stipulates the following:

  • The patient has an established relationship with the ordering physician.
  • The ordering physician has completed a physical examination and health history review of the patient.
  • The ordering physician has diagnosed the patient with a debilitating condition.
  • The patient has tried other methods of treatment unsuccessfully.
  • The benefits of using cannabis as a treatment method outweigh the risk to the patient.

After receiving an examination, health history review, debilitating illness diagnosis, and completing their establishment period, the ordering physician must enter you into the Compassionate Use Registry.

Once in the Registry, a patient will receive two separate emails from the state of Florida – one with a username, the other with a password and link. This information will be used to allow the patient access to an online ID card application.

Upon validation of the application, the state will send the patient a temporary email verification that will allow for the patient to visit any of the state’s dispensaries or call for home delivery of medicine.

The Florida Department of Health has created a system for issuing and renewing Compassionate Use Registry identification cards for patients and their legal representatives. In combination with the Compassionate Use Registry, identification cards will further allow patients and legal representatives to quickly demonstrate that they are registered in the Compassionate Use Registry.

Florida rule 64-4.011, F.A.C. requires all patients and legal representatives to have a valid Compassionate Use Registry identification card to obtain low-THC cannabis, medical cannabis, or a cannabis delivery device. To apply for a Compassionate Use Registry identification card, a patient must:

  1. Be a Florida resident,
  2. Be a qualified patient in the Compassionate Use Registry,
  3. Submit a completed application to the Office of Compassionate Use

Patients and legal representatives may apply for a Compassionate Use Registry identification card electronically on the Compassionate Use Registry, or mail a completed application to the Office of Compassionate Use. Applicants must have an email address added to their Patient Profile to submit an electronic application.

All applications must be submitted to the Office of Compassionate Use, and must include a full-face, passport-type color photograph taken within 90 day, and a registration fee of $75. Compassionate Use Registry identification cards remain active for one year.

Patients who are minors must designate a legal representative on his or her application, and in the Compassionate Use Registry. Legal representatives must also submit a completed application to the Office of Compassionate Use to obtain a Compassionate Use Registry identification card.

Once a card application has been approved, the patient and legal representative may receive a temporary card from the Office of Compassionate Use. A patient must have an approved card application prior to filling an order at a dispensing organization.

 While the doctor may – at any point – revoke a patient’s order for cannabis, the state of Florida has stipulated the following actions can result in a patient being removed from the Compassionate Use Registry:

  • Patient not being seen by the ordering physician at least once every 90 days after the order has been entered.
  • No call/no shows to our clinic.

The Department of Health may revoke a Compassionate Use Registry identification card for any of the following:

  • The patient or legal representative makes material misrepresentations in his or her application;
  • The patient uses his or her card to obtain cannabis for another individual;
  • The legal representative uses his or her card to obtain cannabis for an individual who has not designated them as their legal representative or who is not a qualified patient;
  • The patient or legal representative purchases, obtains, possesses, or uses cannabis not sold by an approved dispensing organization, or
  • The patient is no longer a qualified patient.

No. There is no reciprocity between states’ medical marijuana programs. Just because you have a license in California, Washington, Michigan, or any other state with a medical marijuana program, doesn’t mean you necessarily qualify in Florida.

No. There are no current provisions in Florida law that allow personal growing of marijuana, even for qualified patients.

No. Currently the state does not allow cannabis to be smoked. Some cultivators do produce and sell flower, but it must be vaped in a device that does not allow for combustion.