The Roundup: The Week in Clinical Cannabis

Happy Monday!

Here's your weekly roundup of news in clinical cannabis:

1. Zana Medical Launches Insomnia Beta Program

Before we share a recap of last week’s events in clinical cannabis, we’re excited to announce Zana Medical is launching our Cannabis & Insomnia guidance program. If you’re interested in joining the Beta Program (for free in exchange for your feedback), send me an email - [email protected].

2. Trouble in Paradise? Florida Legislators Attempting to Rewrite Voter Approved Medical Marijuana Amendment

In November, Floridians overwhelmingly passed an amendment to legalize medical marijuana. Florida, unlike most states, requires at least 60 percent of the electorate to approve an amendment to the State’s constitution. A sizable majority -- 71 percent of residents -- voted in support of Florida’s medical-marijuana amendment.

The intent of the bill was to provide access to medical marijuana to individuals with debilitating medical conditions such as cancer, AIDS, and Parkinson’s disease. However, the Florida Legislature has been trying to put major revisions in place that would create what many argue are unnecessary roadblocks.

An editorial in the Gainesville Sun argues the “state’s role should be setting up a system to help sick individuals get medical marijuana, not putting roadblocks in their way.” However, lawmakers are considering revisions to severely restrict access by sick patients. According to The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee bureau, many of the proposed restrictions were lobbied for by the St. Petersburg-based Drug Free America Foundation. This comes after the same group spent more than $1M attempting to defeat the amendment.

Read the full editorial including potential implications of the revisions on The Gainesville Sun.

3. Dr. Mike Hart: How Cannabis Successfully Combats PTSD (Herb.co)

Zana Medical scientific advisory board member and my co-author on an upcoming book about PTSD spoke to Herb.co on how cannabis can successfully treat PTSD and reduce opioid consumption. As Mike shares with Herb:

The primary reason why I initially got into it was to combat the opioid epidemic. I saw a lot of patients using opioids and they were just not getting adequate relief. They also had a variety of different side effects, a lot of fatigue, a lot of constipation, low sex drive, a million different things going on. I found that cannabis was a much better, safer alternative.

Read the full article to learn how CBD and THC can potentially treat PTSD.

4. Homeland Security Head Honcho, John Kelly, Claims Cannabis “Not a Factor” in Drug War; Reverses Self Two Days Later

Encouragingly, making a statement grounded in reality, DHS Secretary John Kelly told NBC’s Chuck Todd that methamphetamines, cocaine, and heroin, were the three drugs that posed the greatest threat, while cannabis was “not a factor” in the drug war. Two days later, however, he appeared to change his tune. According to prepared remarks, Kelly stated: 

“And let me be clear about marijuana. It is a potentially dangerous gateway drug that frequently leads to the use of harder drugs,” Kelly said. “Its use and possession is against federal law and until the law is changed by the U.S. Congress we in DHS are sworn to uphold all the laws on the books.”

Kelly is known for being non-partisan and measured in his public statements while being blunt about the direction of policy. He's also sensibly argued in favor of demand reduction and treatment over arresting individual users of illicit drugs.

Read the Talking Points Memo: DHS' Kelly, Changing Course: Marijuana Is 'A Potentially Dangerous Gateway Drug'

5. Is Cannabis a Gateway Drug?

The proposed "gateway theory" suggesting cannabis leads to other drug use has been a source of controversy and confusion. Time Magazine’s Maia Szalavitz penned an article a few years back: “Marijuana as a Gateway Drug: The Myth That Will Not Die.” Even the National Academy of Medicine has come out to explain why cannabis is not a "gateway drug."

Nonetheless, anti-cannabis activists use the “gateway theory” as a key talking point to argue against cannabis. In stark contrast, four out of five heroin addicts started on prescription narcotics prior to getting hooked on heroin. Moreover, significant evidence suggests cannabis is actually an “exit drug” from harder drugs like heroin. For more on this issue, visit Zana HealthLab for a detailed explanation and further research on the debunked “gateway theory.”

6. New Study: Cannabis may reduce patients’ opioid use

Yet another study finds that cannabis may reduce patients’ opioid use. Researchers from Bowdoin College, the Maine Medical Center, and the Husson University School of Pharmacy published a study involving 1,500 medical marijuana patients in Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island.

According to the study, more than 75 percent of chronic pain patients decreased opioid intake after starting treatment with medical cannabis. The study found that patients also decreased alcohol consumption, and use of medications for sleep, anxiety, and depression.

Key findings from the study:

• 76.7 percent said they had reduced their use of opioid prescription medications “slightly” or “a lot” since starting the use of medical marijuana.
• The highest reduction in opioid use was reported by patients with trauma or injury pain (89.5 percent) and neuropathic pain (81.5 percent).
• 37 percent of patients reduced their use of antidepressants.
• 42 percent reduced alcohol consumption.

The study is notable as the nation grapples with the worst opioid epidemic in history. New England has been particularly hit hard. In Maine alone, 376 residents died from opioid overdoses in 2016. A group of Maine medical marijuana caregivers tried unsuccessfully to make opioid addiction a qualifying condition last year.

“This (opioid epidemic) is a huge societal problem and we need to have a full toolkit to address it,” said Becky DeKeuster, one of the study’s authors and former education director at Wellness Connection dispensaries. “That’s going to involve prevention and treatment. Conscientiously used medical marijuana appears to be a tool we should have in that kit.”

Brian Piper, a professor of neuroscience and one of the study’s authors notes: “Patients understand the risks of addiction inherent to opioid medications, and many of them wish to avoid these drugs altogether.”