Jessica Knox and Rachel Knox
Jessica Knox
Age: 31
Company: The American Cannabinoid Clinics
Position: Co-founder and consulting physician
Location: Oakland, California
In the realm of medical cannabis, far too many people rely on dispensary employees with no medical training to help them determine the best course of action of treating a medical condition.
In other words, there’s too much emphasis on marijuana and not enough on medicine.
However, the AC Clinics are changing all that.
All the consulting physicians at the AC Clinics (which stands for American Cannabinoid Clinics) have years of experience as emergency room doctors, family physicians, anesthesiologists and in preventative medicine.
Rachel Knox
Age: 34
Company: The American Cannabinoid Clinics
Position: Co-founder and consulting physician
Location: Portland, Oregon
“It’s a family affair, really,” Dr. Jessica Knox says. “It’s my sister, myself and also our parents who are all doctors.”
Dr. Rachel Knox says her family’s clinics aim to provide more than just recommendations for medical cannabis.
“Sure, we can write you a card if you qualify for a medical condition, but we also know that cannabis isn’t everything,” Rachel says. “In addition to using cannabis appropriately for one’s condition, we also cover topics like nutrition, chemical exposure, stress and your relationships. We really do describe our care as integrative cannabinoid medicine.”
Alongside the four AC Clinics locations in Oregon, the Knox family, who collectively are licensed to practice medicine in a total of seven states, plans to open a Washington and a California location in 2017. The family also established The Canna MDs website as “an effort to educate patients and healthcare providers and the public in general with a reliable and verifiable source of information about cannabis as medicine,” Jessica says. The website contains a wealth of valuable resources for clinicians, advocates and even historians. It’s a lot more than what was offered during Rachel and Jessica’s years at medical school.
“When we were going to medical school, which wasn’t that long ago, cannabis was only discussed as a drug of abuse,” Jessica says.
Ironically, while both sisters were away at college, it was their mother, Dr. Janice Knox, who began looking at the medicinal benefits of cannabis. Her interest led to the formation of both The Canna MDs and the AC Clinics.
“I remember when she was telling me about this (medical cannabis), I was thinking, ‘What kind of pseudo-science has she gotten into?’” Jessica says.
Both sisters say their interests in traditional medicine at the time were waning and the allure of non-traditional medicine promised a move away from the United States “sick care” system where doctors are trained to provide enough health care to send patients home, but not necessarily thrive.
“That was a very frustrating thing to do, because I think everybody goes into medical school thinking they are going to change the world,” Jessica says. “We both felt that there we were missing the boat, that there were a lot of other approaches that we weren’t trained in that could be beneficial for patients.”
“I felt very limited in what I could do to truly help people through conventional medicine,” Rachel says. “When I discussed this with my mom, she challenged us to think outside the box, so we only applied to medical programs where we could get a dual degree in business.”
Rachel and Jessica both graduated from Tufts Medical School in 2012 with their MD and MBA degrees. And though they graduated college the same year, they’re not twins.
“We’re not twins, but people always seem to get a kick out of twins,” Rachel says. “We do get asked if we’re twins and sometimes we’ll just say yes because people get bummed-out when we say no.”