Darby Cook and her partner, Dr. Jana Lappin, Pharm.D., are working to make cannabis available to Kansas Citians who need it most by founding Missouri Cannabis Clinic.
Cook, founder and CEO, says MCC exists because she believes Missourians deserve access to their medicine. The clinics were chosen as the best certifying clinic in the Kansas City area for their work in 2019.
“My family knows how hard it can be to find a doctor who is willing to help you get a medical marijuana card,” Cook said. “When my parents moved to Michigan about a decade ago as cannabis refugees, it took months for them to locate a doctor who could help them. Even when they found a doctor, they had to drive nearly two hours to get there. When Missourians voted for Amendment 2, I immediately recognized the need for quality medical marijuana care and set to work.”
Missouri Cannabis Clinics have locations in Raytown and Westport in the Kansas City area.
Cook’s family is from the Kansas City area and she spent part of her childhood there. They later moved to Indiana for her father’s work, but after he was involved in a traumatic accident, they moved to Michigan so both her parents could participate in their medical marijuana program.
“My entire family are medical marijuana patients – including myself,” Cook said. “After graduating from New York University, I moved back to Kansas City to work in urban education as a Teach for America corps member. Our medical staff members are also Missouri natives, and have studied at schools such as the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.”
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MCCs wants to help as many people as possible access marijuana in a safe, legal way. Since marijuana can help with so many different medical conditions, most adults stand to benefit from medical marijuana use.
“Marijuana is an amazing plant,” Cook said. “Folks often refer to it as a ‘miracle leaf’ in the sense of all the different things it can help with. There’s no other medicine out there that can treat so many different things at the same time, including chronic pain, anxiety, autism, digestive disorders, and Parkinson’s.”
The clinic opened its second location in late 2019.
“When you start a business, you take on a lot of risk,” Cook said. “You always believe in your vision, and you hope other people will too, but you’re never sure how it will pan out until you dive in and just do it. Having the opportunity to open a second location has been unbelievable, and our whole team is grateful for this chance to help even more Missourians.”
With a variety of clinics becoming available, MCC strives to provides the best, personal service they can.
“We’re a locally owned business, and have strong roots here in the show-me state. We’re also patients ourselves, and can therefore better relate to how what our patients are feeling and experiencing. Finally, we hold ourselves to a high level of professionalism and don’t see ourselves as a “rubber stamp” kind of clinic. Each and every patient has a private meeting with a marijuana doctor, during which their medical history is reviewed.
MCC’s leadership has no plans of slowing down their patient reach and service as they prepare to offer telehealth in 2020.
“We’ve got nothing but high expectations for 2020, and the years to come!” Cook told Greenway.
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