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Green Flower Media: CannaMed 2018
Panel Notes:
Solving the Opioid Problem: The Latest Findings, Solutions & Future Directions
Running time:73min
Dustin Sulak, DO Ziva Cooper, MD Caroline MacCallum, MD Julia Arnsten, MD
At 45:02 Dr.Sulak mentions that he’s seeing a trend in his patient populations of women over the age of 70 taking large amounts of opioids. In his observation this population isn’t seeing the dramatic results with using cannabis to taper off the opioids.
It’s not across the board, but he believes it is a trend.
Dr. Sulak believes the framework necessary to follow as an example for cannabis therapies with opioids may be opioid use disorder with medicated-assisted treatment, coupling Canna meds with education on the drugs and the proper use with opioids.
It may be more productive to train the patients in medicated-assisted treatment with opioids and then introduce them to the regimen with cannabis.
58:43 80% Of addicted patients were originally prescribed opiates by their doctor.
59:22 Dr. Sulak believes it’s necessary to get another tool into the hands of doctors dealing with the addicted patients. What they have available now doesn’t work.
Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is a movement in the surgical community to use anything other than opioids to counter pain.
Ziva, could you maybe speculate a little bit on what may be going on in terms of a mechanism there?”
1:01:45 Ziva’s answer:
(Caroline) For inflammatory processes its best to start with CBD and the smallest amount of THC possible.
- Vaporization as a breakthrough administration pathway.
1:05:30 Dr. Sulak mentions the 2016 guidelines by the CDC that pain clinics should NOT be testing the urine of their patients for THC because the test results won’t drive clinical action.
FIND THIS FEDERAL DOCUMENT AND GET THE LINK TO JONES BEFORE HIS NEXT PHYSICAN VISIT.
Julia believes this goes back to the moralistic attitude of the physicians, who lose sight of the fact that they’re treating a disease. Instead they feel they’re going to influence people’s behavior and somehow make them different people.
- Comes in two strengths.
Panel Notes:
Solving the Opioid Problem: The Latest Findings, Solutions & Future Directions
Running time:73min
Dustin Sulak, DO Ziva Cooper, MD Caroline MacCallum, MD Julia Arnsten, MD
At 45:02 Dr.Sulak mentions that he’s seeing a trend in his patient populations of women over the age of 70 taking large amounts of opioids. In his observation this population isn’t seeing the dramatic results with using cannabis to taper off the opioids.
It’s not across the board, but he believes it is a trend.
- They’re feeling he effects of cannabis but NOT breaking their opioids in half to taper off.
- They’re NOT getting the potentiation of the opioids when adding cannabis.
- They build faster tolerances to the pain modulation effects of cannabis than their male counterparts will, in many cases.
- You may have to experiment more with women to find the therapeutic dose, and it may be higher in THC.
- Watch women closely for indications of cannabis-induced confusion or anxiety
46:50 (Julia)There’s a wide distance between opiate use disorder and chronic pain. In some cases they overlap, but they’re different conditions.
- Something has to occupy the opioid receptor when using cannabis instead, so what’s happening at the receptor level?
- What’s happening between the opioid receptors and the eCBRs that allows cannabis to be useful for either treating opioid use disorder or for opiate withdrawal symptoms? We don’t know what’s going on at a cellular level.
Dr. Sulak believes the framework necessary to follow as an example for cannabis therapies with opioids may be opioid use disorder with medicated-assisted treatment, coupling Canna meds with education on the drugs and the proper use with opioids.
It may be more productive to train the patients in medicated-assisted treatment with opioids and then introduce them to the regimen with cannabis.
58:43 80% Of addicted patients were originally prescribed opiates by their doctor.
59:22 Dr. Sulak believes it’s necessary to get another tool into the hands of doctors dealing with the addicted patients. What they have available now doesn’t work.
- Educating clinicians about the use of cannabis as a medicine will go far to change the corse of this international problem.
Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is a movement in the surgical community to use anything other than opioids to counter pain.
- i.e., use of ibuprofen, getting patients up and moving within an hour of surgery completion, and walking the hallways
- These patients are at higher risk for overdose, since street drugs are often problematic.
- Opioids are effective against pain and patients need them, whether for pain or because they’re addicted.
- Julia believes doctors are doing their best to get the epidemic under control, but they can’t do it alone.
Ziva, could you maybe speculate a little bit on what may be going on in terms of a mechanism there?”
1:01:45 Ziva’s answer:
- This was all THC, no CBD in the medicine was used in her study.
- There appears to be some synergy to the signaling cascade downstream of the immediate activation of the opioid receptor when you combine the cannabinoids with opioids.
- The mechanism hasn’t been worked out yet.
- It’s important to understand this effect if we’re going to look at other cannabinoids or terpenes for opioid-sparing effect.
(Caroline) For inflammatory processes its best to start with CBD and the smallest amount of THC possible.
- She recommends CBD oil for daytime and THC oil at night.
- If someone’s not sleeping this is a great opportunity to use THC.
- She finds many patients, finding sound sleep with THC, often choose to go drug-free during daytime hours.
- For neurological pain she recommends 1:1.
- She also recommends high THC oils, but most often 1:1.
- Vaporization as a breakthrough administration pathway.
- Migraines may need more THC.
1:05:30 Dr. Sulak mentions the 2016 guidelines by the CDC that pain clinics should NOT be testing the urine of their patients for THC because the test results won’t drive clinical action.
FIND THIS FEDERAL DOCUMENT AND GET THE LINK TO JONES BEFORE HIS NEXT PHYSICAN VISIT.
Julia believes this goes back to the moralistic attitude of the physicians, who lose sight of the fact that they’re treating a disease. Instead they feel they’re going to influence people’s behavior and somehow make them different people.
- She believes it’ll take advocacy to the people making those decisions, saying that they don’t make sense.
- No one on this panel had heard of this research.
- Comes in two strengths.
- Has a biphasic effect, energetic at low doses, sedating at higher doses.
- Dr. Sulak has patients that got off opiates with a combo of cannabis and kratom. He believes there’s incredible therapeutic benefit to be gained from its use.