Meet Empathic Practice’s licensed medical marijuana practitioner and medical director, William Hass, MD.
With a background in anesthetics and pain management, Dr. Hass has more than forty years of traditional medical experience under his belt.
With countless patients attesting to the medicinal benefits of CBD in recent years, Dr. Hass couldn’t help but take notice of the booming medical marijuana industry.
“A common thread among patients, particularly younger patients, is that they would rather try something natural than start on pharmaceuticals,” Dr. Hass said.
For years, those patients have been turning to herbal products for treatment, with—and without—approval from their physicians.
“I suspect the sense of the medical community was that these herbal products probably didn’t help, but they were unlikely to cause harm or death,” he said.
Like many others, Dr. Hass was skeptical about the validity of using CBD as a medical treatment.
The new and largely unregulated medical marijuana industry resulted in the introduction of a plethora of contaminated, counterfeit and/or mislabeled products on the shelves of health food stores across the country.
“Unscrupulous marketers are using the assumption that if you tell people that a product cured everything, you could sell them anything,” said Dr. Hass, who noticed that a large quantity of satisfied medical marijuana customers seemed to be benefitting from a placebo effect. “Products with little or no active ingredients were helping as many of 40% of patients improve.”
While the value in the placebo effect is well documented within the medical community, Dr. Hass believed that the medical marijuana products on the market were much too overpriced to be operating solely on the placebo effect.
That was before he had his medical marijuana “AHA moment.”
A year ago, this issue hit home for Dr. Hass. Veterinarians discovered that his fourteen-year-old Goldendoodle, Bailey, was suffering from a large intra-abdominal mass.
According to Dr. Hass and his wife, Susan, “Bailey was the center of our life.”
The once lively, goofy rescue dog’s health was deteriorating. Relying on traditional pharmaceuticals, Bailey’s energy had depleted. He hardly even had the strength to stand up on his own.
“Bailey became increasingly blind and deaf,” said Dr. Hass. “It was hard to watch this painful end to what had been a joyful life.”
Susan began devoting much of her life to tending to Bailey’s basic needs. She spent several hours a day hand-feeding him food and ice water, and many sleepless nights by his side.
With little hope for the beloved family dog, Susan suggested trying CBD dog chews.
“Something funny, if not miraculous, happened,” said Dr. Hass. “Bailey got significantly better.” 
While the CBD did not cure Bailey’s tumor, Dr. Hass and Susan noticed that the light in his eyes had returned. Now, Dr. Hass says that Bailey acts like the big, goofy dog that he was years ago, playing with toys and spontaneously joining in activities with the family.
“Bailey doesn’t know what a placebo effect is,” thought Dr. Hass. “The CBD is doing something for him.”
Although Dr. Hass believes that Susan’s constant love and care was Bailey’s best medicine, he is now a strong proponent of medical marijuana.
“Bailey showed me the way.”
Book an appointment with Dr. Hass at Empathic Practice today!